Trial by Fire: A RWBY Fanfic
by Allen Sharp
Summary: Jaune faces mounting odds as a solo mission with dire consequences, brings forth new skills and pushes old ones to there limit. (Takes place between S2 and S3)
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one: The Decision

The grounds of Beacon were quiet, soft white fog drifted across the ground. The sun was on the rise, thin rays of light stabbed deep into the shadows of what was a chilly night. Somewhere, a nevermore crowed; Ozpin sat at his desk looking through reports.

 _Let's see here…_ He thought, sleep mildly pulling at his attention.

 _Combat reports, Finances, Personal E-mail, Glynda…Glynda?_ His thoughts drew together as he looked up to the ding of the elevator. On que Ms. Goodwitch stepped out, her stoic face lending no evidence of having to force herself awake…well, no evidence of any emotion really.

"Good morning sir," she said, two cups of steaming coffee in either hand. "Have you read the weekly combat reports I've sent you and my personal report?"

Ozpin looked at her attentively, "Sadly, no I was just looking through the general agenda for today."

Grabbing one of the cups he quickly took a sip, the dark roast touching his very soul. Ozpin sat and closed his eyes in satisfaction. If it was possible, his very aura would have begun to glow, in fact it might have done just that. Glynda however, brought him back to the present.

"The pupils who have the lowest rankings are in for the month reports." As she was speaking, her face shifting to one of frustration. "Once again, Jaune Arc has ranked at the bottom, he's certain made a name for himself…as the weakest student at beacon." Frustration was evident in her voice as she placed her fingers to her head and scrunched her brow in annoyance.

"Glynda…" Ozpin said knowingly looking at her most recent reports, "we've been through this."

Glynda strode and stood in the middle of the room to face Ozpin, the sun now bathing the room and tower in a rich golden hue. "I know how he got in, his reports looked suspicious the moment I found them. I have colleagues in the combat school he 'claims' he attended, I can have them look into his case and…"

Ozpin threw up his hand.

"He made his choice to come here, he is a leader of his team and has made many friends and colleagues of his own." Ozpin said, a faint smile crossing his lips, that faded into a more serious expression. "What would you tell him, his team? That he is no longer welcomed despite his success as a team leader?"

"Yes, if I find anything to confirm my findings, and I mean anything…" She stated, glaring at him "Then I will personally see to it, that such an example is made of him that this kind of problem won't happen again."

"At the expense of the school's reputation and principals?" Ozpin said in a serious tone.

"What?" Glynda said in confusion, as Ozpin stood up and stood at the edge of the room looking out at the rising sun, the light finally falling upon the grounds.

"Say we kick him out, then what? Where will he go and what will he do? Maybe home? Maybe join criminals? What will it say about us that we took what seemed like a functional team and literal ripped out one of its corner stones?" Ozpin said, not even glancing in Glynda's direction. "Honestly Glynda, I thought that you would have come to me about team CRDL by this point. However, since you feel so strongly about the matter I must ask, 'what would you have me do?'"

Glynda was taken aback, "Don't try to guilt me! His team may seem normal and fine, but that attitude will surely crumple when they are gathered around the boys' coffin." Glynda said, setting her mug down and walking over to Ozpin. He glanced at her as she waited for a response and let out a sigh, "So…as it stands… you want me to make a decision? Well, indeed, I have."

Glynda looked at him with mild surprise "…and?"

Ozpin walked over to his desk and tap at the screen, he pulled forth a file and then swiped it, Glyndas' tablet vibrated softly. She pulled it out and looked over the report. It was a mission request, a solo mission request. Not many of them were given to the academy, this was because solo missions were normally given to combat students as a rite of passage into Beacon. However, when they did come up it was usually due to it being difficult enough to give some of the less skilled teams a chance to work on their teamwork; Glynda looked at Ozpin quizzically, she then looked at the details of the mission.

"Summon Jaune and give him a choice: Either quit and walk away from all he has built here, or take this mission and prove himself as a hunter… _alone_."

Glynda looked up at him with a shocked expression, and began to look over the details again.

Ozpin examined his mug and coffee, or lack thereof, with sadness. "Either way, I'm leaving this to _you."_

" _What_!?" Glynda said in alarm, her voice giving away more shock than she liked as she looked up. The details of this mission were troubling

"He's the lowest ranking student at beacon, and this is a job I would be giving _to Miss Nikos!_ There is no way the boy can handle this! _"_

Ozpin turned and faced her, "That is what you think." He said with a coy smile. "I sense something more, something great…I have waited for you and the other professors to bring it out of him. Now however, my patience has worn thin and time grows short." He looked out over the grounds, some of the students had begun to do there usually morning activities to get a jumpstart on the day.

"Our enemies are on the move. The Vytal Tournament is when they will strike, that much is clear to us. In two weeks' time the most powerful students in the world will converge and the plans of the dark queen and her pawns will be revealed…and I'm not sure we will withstand it." Ozpin looked up at Glynda with concern in his eyes and saw a new emotion in hers, fear.

"The world will need all the heroes' it can take, and we must form and shape them with whatever amount of time we have left. That which is in front and behind us is small compared to what lies within, the trick is bringing it out for all to see. Now go do what you must, Jaunes' day to rise or fall has come."

Glynda picked up her mug, now cold, and walked back to the elevator. As she waited, she turned and faced Ozpin. "And if he fails? What kind of message will that send?" She then stepped inside, and pressed for the first floor.

"That the combat class will need some reevaluation and perhaps a new teacher." Ozpin said jokingly, Glyndas' glare though, indicated an inability to see the humor in it. The elevator closed with a silent thud.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Inquisition

"Aim for the ceiling!" Ruby called out.

"Where on the ceiling?" Jaune called out in worry, his thoughts drifting between where he was aiming and how he got roped into this situation. "Here?"

"No! Aim further back, at this angle it will land in my lap!" Nora called out, her face was tense with excitement.

"So long as it doesn't land on my homework you'll be fine." Weiss called out, a hint of annoyance lingered in her voice.

Through all this, Ren had his back turned and his eyes closed in total concentration.

"Ready?" He said calmly.

Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Pyrrah and most of all Nora all nodded quickly. Blake, letting out a small sigh looked up from her book and looked on with her attention torn between her book and the ongoing scene. Suddenly, Ren's eyes snapped open and snapped his wrist forward. A tiny pancake, no larger than a coaster flipped high into the air and straight over his head.

"NOW JAUNE!" Pyrrha called out, Jaune squeezing down hard on a bottle of syrup. A small shot of syrup collided with pancake spinning rapidly through the air. It quickly began its descent, still on accurate trajectory. Nora had her hands spread above her head and eyes closed as she awaited the tiny morsel to land in her mouth. Suddenly, the room went quiet, Nora kept waiting and waiting.

 _Renny's never missed before,_ she thought, _did Jaune mess up with the syrup again?_

Slowly, she opened her eyes expecting to see some covered in syrup, _yet again_. Instead her vision first found Ren looking past her, along with everyone else.

 _Where's the panca-,_ Nora suddenly spied the pancake, literally an inch from her face.

"Whoa!"

Nora lurched back causing her to lean to far and land on the floor with a thud, earning a few chuckles from her friends.

"Children," Mrs. Goodwitch stated coldly, "What have your parents taught you about playing with your food?" It was evident she was _not_ in a good mood. The rest of the teams stood up, Mrs. Goodwitch never, _never_ , visited the students in their dorms unless it was serious. Either an assignment of serious note was about to be handed to one if not both of the teams, or…

"Jaune Arc, please meet me in the headmaster's office around noon… _alone_ " Mrs. Goodwitch said in her usually serious tone, however that last word seemed more…tense. She immediately turned and walked out of the room. The pancake, now forgotten, suddenly fell onto the plate that it had slowly been sliding towards.

Everyone looked at each other and then at Jaune, the man himself looking at the direction from which she had come and gone with confusion and dread.

"Well," Yang said with a grin, "looks like someone just found themselves in a _witchy_ situation."

Everyone groaned and Blake looked over at her. "Yang, that was bad even by your standards." Her feline eyes landing on the blonde who looked around for any kind of support before letting out an exaggerated sigh and looking down.

"Yeah I know." She said quietly, causing everyone to grin at her sheepishness.

…

Noon rolled around quickly, to Jaune it was actually a small blessing in disguise. At least he didn't have to sit through another one of Professor Ports _lectures._ He stood at the elevator, and let out a sigh as he waited for the elevator to reach his level.

 _What did I do this time?_ He pondered, _Is this about the incident with the perfume?_ The very thought causing him to smirk, _that wasn't my fault! It was that girl from team CFVY, then again how was she supposed to know that her new perfume was apparently a decent Grimm attractant._ He let out a chuckle, and he thought _he_ had bad luck. It was a good thing that girl, Coco wasn't it? Had a freaking machine for a purse. _I'm just glad I didn't get it as a gift for Weiss or Pyrrha, although Pyrrha could probably handle herself. She always knows how to handle-_

" _Ding!"_

The elevator open to reveal…no one. Jaune pushed his thoughts behind him and stepped inside, he hit the button for top floor and waited.

Two hours later Jaune was wrong, it wasn't about the perfume incident, it was much worse. As a matter of fact, he wished it was about the perfume incident and wished he had been completely naked while said event transpired. He sat completely still in his chair in the middle of the room, his eyes downcast on his feet, but his gaze staring far beyond them. Ozpin wasn't present, his chair empty while Glynda stalked around Jaune like a tiger examining its helpless prey.

"So…what now?" Jaune whispered, Glynda barely hearing it.

She looked down on him with a harsh gaze. "Well normally, circumstances would allow us to kick you out immediately, but not before bringing you in front of your peers in the amphitheater as you are stripped of you school uniform." Jaune looked sick and broke out into a cold sweet as Glynda went on. "We would also send a letter to your parents and to every other major combat school and academy in Remnant, subsequently blacklisting you from any other chance of doing this again." She gave him a cold, furious glare, causing him to shrink down even further in on himself. "And believe me, that would be your _only_ course of action if it were up to me."

It took all of Jaunes' will to lift his head and vacantly stare at Ozpins desk. "There's another option?" He said weakly.

"Two actually." Glynda said, retracting her glare to look forward. "Since your team is of such…esteem. I am willing to make an exception. You can leave quietly, no public shame and your team will be able to choose a member from the next year's group. Preferably one that can actually live up to the merits they claim to have, and all of this is based on one condition." That commit made Jaune lower his head once again.

"That condition?" He said calmly, his eyes low, but the fear was gone from his voice and body. Glynda took notice and continued.

"Your sword and shield, turn them in and head home. The school will write a letter explaining they were lost in a skirmish with Grimm. With that you will never step foot in this academy again." With that Jaune looked up in shock.

"What!? I can't give you my weapons they are a family heirloom! It's a tradition and legacy to pass it down from one warrior to the next in our family!" He cried.

"A tradition which appears to end with you then." Glynda said without pity, Jaune looked up at her and held her gaze.

"Well, what's my third option?" Jaune said, causing Glynda to let out a sigh and tap her tablet causing a screen to appear in the air in front of them.

Glynda began to go over the details. "Ozpin has given you a chance to prove yourself, this is a solo mission to one of the failed cities near the mountains. There is a central building in one of the cities, an artifact of great importance was placed there. The hunter given this task must land about 50 miles outside of the city perimeter work your way into the city and out, an exfiltration team will be waiting for a beacon that will be given to this hunter at the beginning." With that the lights closed and Glynda turned and faced Jaune once more.

"So my only option is to face a mission in the mountains _alone_?" Jaune said, stunned at all that had been laid before him.

"No" Glynda said, " _Your_ only option is to leave quietly and never return."

Jaune finally had enough and stood up angrily and attempted to speak.

" _Sit Down!"_ Glynda hissed, causing the boy to immediately plop back down in his chair. "You really think you have a chance to succeed in this mission? _Ha,_ let's see if your past displays are any indicator." She then flicked her tablet and the screens came back into existence. A video began to play, Jaune immediately recognized it as combat class as he saw himself come into frame. In the other screen another person came into view, Arslan from team ARBN, the round commenced and was over within seconds. Jaune winced and softly rubbed his stomach remembering the encounter, the screens flickered and it switched. Suddenly, it was Juane facing Velevet, it too only lasted around a minute. Blake, Coco, Cardin, along with a plethora of other people played for a few minutes, all concluding with the same image of Jaune defeated on the floor and his aura in the red or lower.

Glynda finally stopped, "Do you understand?" She looked at him, now with a face of concern. "If you take this mission you will be facing more Grimm than you have ever had to deal with as a _team_ , much less alone and no one will be coming to save you if you get hurt. You can put on a strong bravado in front of your friends, but this is the mission where that means nothing. Ozpin will be back around six and will await your response. My advice, go home and put this all behind you. You've got a lot of life to live, I'd hate to see it wasted in a vain effort to pretend to be hero."

Jaune looked up at her concerned face which faded back into stoicism, "You're dismissed." Her words seemingly allowing Jaune to be able to move his feet as he walked slowly to the elevator. He walked in and stared at Goodwitch until the door closed shut.

…

Jaune thought about going back to his dorm, but decided against. His classes where over for today, but he didn't care. Instead he walked aimlessly around the academy. Eventually, he found himself in the weapons lock up room, he walked over to his pod and opened it, pulling out Corcera Mors, looking it over. He checked the time, 5:30, and pulled the gold-white sword and shield around him and began walking back to the headmasters office, still in deep thought. The conversation he had with Glynda played over and over in his mind.

 _My advice, go home and put this all behind you._

 _Your only option is to leave quietly and never return…_ Jaune?

Jaune? _A tradition which appears to end with you then…_ Jaune!

Jaunes' consciousness snapped to focus as he realized his name was being called, he looked up to the sight of a familiar red head.

"Jaune! Are you ok? Whats going on? We've been calling you for almost two hours!" Pyrrha said, her voice filled with worry. Jaune winced and looked down at his phone, filled with texts and missed call from both his team and team RWBY.

"Sorry I just have… a lot on my mind right now." Jaune said, and looked deep into Pyrrahs' worried eyes. He couldn't lie to her. He quickly pulled her to an empty class room and told her everything, albeit a more streamlined version of the events that took place. When he was done Pyrrha had fear in her eyes.

"What do you plan to do?" She said in hush tones.

Jaune looked at her with emotional exhaustion. "What does it look like? At this point I either go home, or into what Glynda says is a certain death."

"What if I or team RWBY sneak onboard or…or…or something!" Pyrrah said in a frantic voice as Jaune walked to the door. Pyrrha grabbed his hand and turned him around looking him in the eye. "You can do this…no… _we_ can do this." She seemed to have found renewed confidence in her eyes.

Jaune looked back at her tiredly and with somewhat frustration. "No, even if you did come along it would just mean that you had to cover for my own inabilities and you might not even be able to save us then. It's either me going home or going alone, _I can't leech off others!"_

"You're not leaching off of anyone!" Pyrrha retorted as tears began to form on her eyes, her fists cleanching "You've grown better and better! They can't do this to you, _I WON'T LET THEM!"_ Pyrrha let out a frustrated cry and her semblance activated causing all the student chairs and desks to start sliding toward them at a dangerous speed.

"Pyrrha!" Jaune said with alarm. The red head opened her eyes and unclenched her fists, the chairs stopped moving. The two of them stood there in silence, before Jaune decided to move.

"I have to go, Ozpin is waiting on me to make a decision." He grabbed the door handle when he felt a firm grip in his other hand. He turned, ready to argue with Pyrrha over why he couldn't take the mission. What he found was Pyrrha not meeting his eyes, tears beginning to stream from her eyes and down her cheek.

She spoken softly, but pain was evident in her tone. "Just remember, there comes a time when we must prove ourselves and we may not feel like we're ready. We may never _be_ ready, but that's when you think of what you're fighting for and what you…love…and show the world just who you really are." She looked him in the eyes, her own swirling with emotion. "I just want you to know that I…I…I will support you…no matter what you choose." She then walked past him and outside. Jaune peered out and caught sight of her just as she rounded the corner.

He let out a sigh and mediated on what Pyrrah told her before looking at the time, 5:55, crap! He was going to be late if he didn't hurry! He scrambeled down the hall to the elevator.

…

The sun had begun to set, the rays of light had begun to fade as darkness reclaimed the territory that it had lost at dawn. Inside Ozpins office, Glynda stood aside from Ozpin who sat and waited patiently as he saw the elevator light up and begin its usual hum before opening. Jaune walked in with his eyes downcast.

"Mister Arc," Ozpin began, "I believe you know why you are here this afternoon."

Jaune looked at him, "Yes, sir." He said calmly, "I have made my decision. It took me some time to think about it, but it is the only answer that seems to be right, to me at least."

"Just place your armor on the table and a bullhead will be waiting to pick you up outside." Glynda said calmly, no sign of malice in her voice or expression, just relief. He took of his sword and shield and placed them in his arms and began to walk towards Ozpin. Time slowed and Jaune felt off as he walked, his gut told him to stop, but his head told him it was the only logical action. Finally, he was at Ozpins desk, he closed his eyes.

 _… there comes a time when we must prove ourselves… you think of what you're fighting for and what you love…and show the world just who you really are._

"No…" Jaune whispered to himself, he looked up to see the headmaster staring at him. Glynda looked at them, slightly annoyed with how long this was taking as Jaune just stood there. She watched them suspisiously, something passed between the two of them, an unsaid message or acknowledgement.

"No." Jaune said this time more clearly and more loudly.

"No what?" Glynda said in confusion, looking at both Jaune and Ozpin. Jaune simply took his sword and shield and slung them over his back. He turned to face Glynda who looked at him, a strange new fire lit his eyes.

"I'm not leaving, not that easily." He stated matter-of-factly before turning to Ozpin. "Ozpin sir, I would like to take the mission."

"Delightful," Ozpin said as he took a sip from his mug, "here is the mission details."

Glynda let out a sigh, before tapping the screen, she couldn't believe what was happening. She gave out the mission briefing. "The town you are going to is called Kairos, it was the original frontier and border to keep the Grimm out of Vale. Sadly, the city fell decades ago due to crime and a multitude of different wars which weakened the city. Corruption led to the city becoming too weak to defend itself and eventually being abandoned and then overrun with Grimm." She tapped on her screen and a map popped up, it was Vale. Beacon appeared as a bright blue dot, closer to the mountains a green dot appeared with a larger yellow circle surrounding it.

Glynda went over the details. "You will be dropped out roughly 50 miles from the city, near the foothills of the mountain range. From there, it is up to you to traverse you way to the city following an old path to the city, as it is the only way into the city and out. The city will be in a steep valley between two of the mountains."

"Why so far away?" Jaune asked with curiosity, "Why not just fly into the city?"

"That was such a wonderful idea to the vale airforce." Glynda said sarcastically, "until a murder of nevermores showed up and took down an entire fleet." Jaune gulped, that sounded like a lot of Grimm.

"You will be facing an untold amount of Grimm, your best bet is to avoid and evade whatever you can, fighting only when necessary." Ozpin said, trying to bring him some reassurance.

"Ok," Jaune said timidly, "What am I searching for?" He looked determined, but now a little bit more worried.

Ozpin covered this part as well. "You will be looking for the archive building near the center of the city. From there you must make your way down to the vault in its basement and retrieve this." The screen lit up revealing a small, but beautiful looking item. It appeared to be made from clear quartz with a unique pattern, like a soccer ball, A faint light seeming to radiate from it.

"What is it?" Jaune said in a mesmerized manner, He had never seen something so beautiful. "Is a jewel of some kind?"

The screens then winked out. "That," Ozpin stated, "Is the object you will be looking for, it has unique properties and we don't want it to fall into…undesirable hands. You leave tomorrow at seven"

"Ok then," Jaune said with forced optimism, "get to the city, grab the jewel, and get out alive, that seems easy enough."

"With a horde of Grimm and the fact that no one has been there in decades." Glynda said in frustration, "Are you sure about this Mr. Arc? There won't be anyone to help you should something go wrong out there. We won't fault you for backing down, if I was in your shoes I would."

Jaune said nothing, but instead walked to the elevator and hit the button waiting for it to reach the room. "Yeah, _you_ would backdown if you were as skilled as me, but I guess that is the difference between you and me. You look at your skills and decide to backdown, I look at what I love and decide to stand up."

The elevator dinged and he stepped inside, "Thankfully, or unfortunately in your case, that is something that just can't be taught." The door then closed and proceeded back down. Glynda stood there for a moment, before murmuring something that sounded less than professional to Ozpin.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Adventure Begins

It was dark by time Jaune made it back to, he walked to the common room after finding his room empty. He heard his team and team RWBY talking amoungst themselves and almost walked into the room, but froze at the doorway when he picked up on the conversation.

"You really think he will leave?" Blake said sounding surprised.

"No! Of course, not, this is _Jaune_ we are talking about. He never gives up." Nora said with happy enthusiasm bringing a smile to Jaunes face.

"It would make sense to me if he left, good riddance, if he can't make it here the same way we did then he doesn't deserve to be here." Jaune recognized the voice before hearing a muffled sound and a loud yelp. "What was that for!?"

"Don't be so harsh, Ice Queen," Ruby said scolding, "Jaune has proven himself in many ways since being here and has been a good friend, to _all_ of us."

Weiss snorted, "Whatever, he's a good friend, but it doesn't change the fact he snuck his way in here. I had to fight one of our massive sentinels as an exam to get in, how else do you think I got this scar?"

Jaune heard Ruby ponder for a second, "You slipped in the bathroom?"

Everyone else let out a chuckle while Wiess only moaned. "You dolt," she muttered underneath her breath. Everyone went silent for a minute reflecting on the situation at hand before Yang spoke up. "Pyrrha, you've been quiet this whole time, what do you think?" Pyrrha remained quiet for a minute, but then spoke in a low tone.

"I believe that Jaune is a capable and intelligent leader. He certainly isn't the best fighter, and hasn't shown anything special when it comes to his course work." Jaune cringed and let out a soft sigh, she was right, he wasn't anything special. "However, he has shown great ability to be a leader and he certainly has better charisma than some _other_ people we know." Her eyes cutting towards Wiess, causing the heiress to become very interested in the food on her plate. Pyrrha let out a sigh, "I just hope he does what's right…" she whispered dejectedly.

On que Jaune rounded the corner, "Hey guys," He said mildly.

"Jaune!" The group cried, everyone stood up. Pyrrha walked swiftly toward him.

" _What happened! What did Ozpin and Glynda say! Have you made a deision!?"_ Pyrrha said rapidly while resting a hand on Jaunes sholder.

"Geez, Pyrrha he may be your blonde boy toy, but give the man a little space will ya?" Yang said with a grin, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you'd want blondie to stay…all…to…yourself." With that Pyrrahs face came surprisingly close to matching her fiery hair, as she moved her hand off Jaunes shoulder and became very interested with her thumbs.

"I…I just wanted to know what happened." Pyrrha said in a soft tone, not looking up from her hands.

"Sssuuurrreee" Yang said with a widening smile, until Blake nudged her in the ribs.

"So what did you find out?" Ruby asked, Jaune began to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of his gut moaning for the food that lay on the table, a plethora of aromas all swirling out to greet him. He walked over and grabbed himself a plate. While he was eating, he explained everything, the decision, the mission, and how he had to go get ready. As he spoke, Team RWBY was mostly happy except for Weiss who smirked at the idea, but received glares from the rest of her team until she gave a nod of approval to Jaune. Ren was his normal Zen mood, but shared a quaint smile to Jaune. Nora jumped from her chair and nearly choked Jaune in a bear hug. Then there was Pyrrha, she looked down at her food, her cheeks tinted red and a warm smile etched across her face.

"What made you decide to stay?" Ren asked as they group ate their food. Jaune looked up and thought for a moment before returning to eat.

"I just thought of what I loved and then…I couldn't have left, even if I wanted to." He said in a matter of fact tone.

 _ZZZZMMMMM! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink! Clink!_

"Wha- Pyrrah!" Ruby cried as the silverware congregated around her hand be for falling to the table with a harsh clash.

"I'm sorry!" The Spartan said in a sincere tone. Yang lowered her face into her arms and began to heave from laughter, even Blake let out a wryly grin.

…

Soon the groups split off to sleep, morning would come early and soon Jaune would be facing very stacked deck. Soon everyone was asleep or at least trying, Nora's snoring was an obstacle that took patience and good ear plugs. Jaune was tired but restless, he found himself looking out the window at the shattered moon above thinking about the day and all the twist and turns that it had taken. He was beginning to think about tomorrow and the obstacles that were out there, he also thought about all that could go wrong and grew more tense. Something softly touched between his shoulder blades.

"G'ah!" Jaune yelped, nearly falling out the bed, he whipped around to see…

"Pyrrha, what are you doing up!?" Jaune hissed in a whisper as he pulled out his ear plugs. Around that time, Nora stopped snoring. They both turned to see Nora fidget and then turn and pull up against Ren, a smile creeping across her sleeping face. Letting out a sigh of relief, Jaune turned back to Pyrrha.

"Pyrrha, what are you doing up?" He said more calmly, but Pyrrha didn't answer. Instead she surprised him by calmly slipping into his bed and looking him in the eyes, she gently caressed his face with her hand. "Pyrrha?" He said, dealing with a surfeit of emotions, his heart was racing but it wasn't from fear, well it was…it was… it was racing from something.

She rolled, turning her back to him and scooching against him. For whatever reason, Jaune threw his arm around her, she grabbed it and pulled it close to her.

"Are you sure about this?" Pyrrha asked, though her voice was barely a whisper. Jaune could barely hear due to her low voice and the blood rushing in her ears as his warmth and hers began to acclimate with each other. Jaune tried to calm down his feelings, but gave up.

"Yes," He said his voice cracking, he laid on his back and thought about the events. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't scared, but I've been scared before." He felt Pyrrha slide his hands into her hands, he noticed other things as well. Her warm breath on his forearm, her hair on his chest. The way her side rose and fell as she breathed.

"Do you have a plan?" Pyrrha said softly, Jaune thought about it, but also noticed how he felt his fear ebb away. Replaced with another emotion…A much more…surprising emotion.

"Uh-Um…Yeah of course! Of course, I have a plan! It's…um…well lets see…" Pyrrha lazily turned over and rested her head on his chest before lifting it to look up at him with a sleepy smile.

"You're a very brave man." She said as she began to run her hand across his chest, Jaune laid frozen, he didn't know how to respond. Pyrrha rested her head back on his chest, "Such a brave…brave…man."

Her and Jaune laid there for quite a few minutes, eventually Jaune looked down at the Spartan laying peacefully across him. "Pyrrha?" Jaune called out, no response, he lifted his head some more. "Pyrrha?"

She was asleep.

Jaune rested his head and closed his eyes. He felt her heart beat on his chest, and her peaceful breathing. He felt her warmth and a single thought passed through his mind, as he finally could place the emotions he was feeling.

"This is…nice." Jaune said in the quiet dark, before wrapping his arms around her and peacefully slipping into his dreams.

…

An alarm clock brought Jaune back to conciseness he laid for a few minutes trying to gather his thoughts, before remembering the mission.

 _Urgh, time for destiny,_ he thought miserably, _I wonder if I can grab a bite to eat before-_

He then remembered last night and went rigid, slowly he lifted his head, but Pyrrha wasn't there. He looked up to see Ren meditating in the floor.

"Hey Ren, do you know where Pyrrha is?" Jaune said as he stood up and got dressed in his combat attire.

Ren smirked in frustration to the disturbance, but quickly returned to a calm collected face. "She left to go take care of something about 30 minutes ago."

"What was it?" Jaune said absent mildly as he finished putting on his shoes and grabbing an extra jacket and a small medical kit.

"She wouldn't say…, I suspect it may have something to with you two from last night." Ren said opening one eye with a smile at the sight of Jaune freezing in place and then slowly turning towards Ren.

"What do you know?" Jaune asked meekly, wishing it was all a dream.

"Nothing," Ren said calmly. "When I woke up Pyrrha was just getting out of your bed and went to change. When she came back she grabbed her things and left quietly, and before you ask, Nora doesn't know."

Jaune breathed a sigh of relief before looking at the time 6:45. "Well, guess I better get moving." He began to walk to the door.

"Jaune," Ren called out, Jaune turned to see the warrior standing up and looking at him with determination. "You can and will do this, I've seen it myself." With that he walked over and gave his leader a hug, "Just remember to remain calm when your surrounded by fear. Fear doesn't kill you, panic does." Jaune nodded before heading out the door, he found Nora and the rest of team RWBY waiting for him.

"Hey, Jaune!" Nora called out happily, her expression however, seemed more like forced cheerfulness.

"We weren't going to let you leave without saying goodbye!" Ruby said as she ran over to hug him.

"You got this, just keep your eyes open." Blake said confidently.

"Yeah, don't let yourself fall into any _grimm_ situations." Yang said happily, receiving glares and groans from her team. She let out a sigh before giving him a hug, "Be careful out there." The rest of team RWBY joined her, after a few seconds ticked by they loosened their grasp.

"I will do my best." Jaune said, although it sounded more forced than he wanted it to. He began to walk outside and to the landing zone where a bullhead awaited him.

"Greetings, Mister Arc" A voice called out, Jaune turned to find Ozpin standing with a cup of coffee in hand. "You certainly look ready, however you will be pleased to note that a majority of your supplies are in the Bullhead awaiting you."

"Thank you" Jaune said as he turned to head towards the ship.

"One more thing," Ozpin called out as he walked towards him. "Take this, you will no doubt find this to be very helpful." He then handed Jaune a small circular disk which opened to reveal a small monitor. "That device will help you locate the object should you get close enough, it detects the energy coming from the object in correlation to your location."

"Thank you professor," Jaune said in a sincere tone and began to walk towards the airship. As he got closer a new figure came into view.

"Hello again." Pyrrha said calmly as the two of them stood on the platform next to the ship. Before he could get any closer the cargo doors opened and the pilot stepped out.

"We need a minute before takeoff, after that we can take you to the insertion point." He said in a gruff tone, Jaune simply nodded and the pilot stepped back inside.

He and Pyrrha stood there alone for a few moments. "I guess this is goodbye," Pyrrha said weakly. Holding her hands together and looking downcast.

Jaune walked over to her. "Hey, I'll make it back, I'll only be gone for a week at best. On a side note you're in charge till I get back, I don't think the school can survive with Nora as a team leader." That caused her to smile a little, but it quickly faded back into concern and worry. Jaune then brushed his hand across her check as she cupped her face into his palm and put her hand to his.

"I still don't like the thought of leaving you." She said withdrawing her hand and biting her lip.

"I don't the thought either, but it's leave and try to come back or leave forever." Jaune said in determination, moving hid hand to her shoulder. Pyrrha lurched forward hugging him, he returned the embrace. Suddenly, the engines thundered to life and Jaune turned his head to watch the bullhead begin to float upward.

"Well looks like I've got to g…" Jaune began to turn back to Pyrrha, but instead was met with a warm sensation that he realized to be a kiss. He closed his eyes on instinct as the feels he had last night came flooding back. The bullhead door suddenly opened and the pilots head popped out.

"Alright we're re-… oh, um…sorry to interrupt, but we're ready to go and a thunderstorm will be moving in around noon. We've got to go now if we want to get back before then." He then muttered something under his breath before slinking back into the cockpit, the engines revving loudly.

Once their lips parted, Pyrrha backed away from Jaune, a little stunned. "Just come back to me…ok?" Pyrrha said before turning around and walking back to the school, her hair billowing in a light breeze. Jaune watched her go for a few seconds before climbing in and taking a seat. The pilot took note of him as he entered before signaling to the co-pilot. The ship slowly rose like a metal balloon, it then turned softly and zoomed off to the drop point rapidly picking up pace to cruising speed.

Jaune looked out the window, he saw clouds breeze by, as the sun slowly rose in the sky. It looked beautiful, on another occasion his team would have had an outdoor lunch later. However, soon he would be out there, facing unknown odds on a perilous mission with no team to back him up. Jaune did the wisest thing he knew, propped his head against the glass and went to sleep.

He was awoken to the sound of the engines hum lowering in tune, he realized they had stopped and where in the middle of landing at the drop point. After a few minutes the ship came to a stop, hovering just off the ground, the pilot stepped from the cockpit.

"Time to go hunter," he said rather gruffly. Jaune found the supply bag that Ozpin had spoken of and threw it over his shoulder. He then picked up his sword and shield and hopped out, the bullhead had landed at the edge of the foothills, behind Jaune stood a dark and shadowy forest, in front of him was open hills that got steadily stepper as they went towards the mountains. In the far distance, he saw two mountains an equal distance from each other he looked down at the space between the two to see a large hazy spire sticking out of the haze.

He turned back to the Bullhead to see the pilot standing at the door. "Good luck and take this," he then threw Jaune an object the was the same size and color as an eraser, except for a small silver button on the side and red light on the top of it. "Hit the button once you get to the extraction point, we will be on stand-by to get you out. Be warned though, it will take us at least 30 minutes to get there, even at top speed." With that he closed the door and a few second later the ship began to rise and then flew out of sight, the engines fading from his hearing a few minutes later."

With the noise of the bullhead gone a new sound was apparent, _silence_. Apart from a few bird calls every now and again, there was no noise coming from the forest. Jaune stood still for a minute to collect his thoughts before pulling out his scroll and pulling up his location.

 _Well let's do this! This is going to be a piece of cake!_ He thought to himself happily.

 _RRRRAAAAGHHH!_

An evil roar split through the tranquility causing Jaune to flinch. _Correction, I hope this is going to be a piece of cake._

He drew out his sword, and carefully made his way into the foothills. Walking to the hazy spire like a beacon in the night.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: A walk through thoughts

Jaune loved walking and loved to camping, but not when in was in the middle of nowhere with no one around save for Grimm. He had seen them a handful of times, thankfully way off in the distance, there hazy silhouettes meandering around off to the sides. Jaune had been careful, walking down into the gullies made by the hills, only rising to inspect the landscape and make sure he was going in the right direction. He had already had to back track twice, each time walking in the wrong direction.

The sun was blazing, its warm heat beating down on him and while the hills provided cover from Grimm there was no escaping the intense sunlight. Jaune took a sip from his cantina, having found it tucked into the bag given to him along with some others supplies courtesy of Ozpin. As he walked his thoughts began to drift onto a wide array of subjects: Glynda, Ozpin, his combat ability (or lack thereof), his team, team RWBY, and many more. Eventually, his thoughts conglomerated onto a single topic, Pyyrah.

 _Has she always had feelings for me?_ He thought quietly as he began to tread up a hill, they began to look all the same after the first few hours. _What did I miss? She never really gave any indicators, and I like Weiss! Well…I have feelings for her…don't I?_ That thought made him stop for a second. While it was true that he had first had a crush on her she hadn't seemed to reciprocate those feelings, as a matter of fact she seemed more hostile to him than anything else.

He shook his head and then proceeded to put them away for now and continue his march. As he crested the hill he looked up at his focal point, the tower. He was closer now, about 20 miles away, and the haze on the tower had become less and more details had begun to appear. The tower was black and seemed craggily and falling apart. It was apparent no one had been there in a _long_ time, either that, or the people who built the place had strange architecture quirks.

Jaune then noticed another thing, shadows. He turned and looked at the setting sun and let out a sigh, it was time to build camp. Thankfully as he looked down the hill he found shelter, two outcropped rocks poking from two hills making a small overhang with a small slant in the middle where they failed to connect. Jaune walked down and inspected the area, no sign of Grimm, which was always good. He did however, find a small scorpion.

"Ha, glad you're not the big guy I faced on my first mission at Beacon." He then used his sword and chopped it in two, he was taking no chances of an unwanted bed mate. Jaune then walked up and set his bag down, he pulled out a small meal of rations and water. It didn't need fire, which was due to the fact of a lack of fire wood and the fact that a fire would be like shooting up a flare to any nearby Grimm.

The food itself wasn't great, but it kept off the hunger. He then pulled out his sleeping bag and rolled it out, he kept his sword strapped to his side and his shield against the rock behind his head. He then spent the night laying on his back and looking up at the stars and munching on a small snack of pork grinds he had taken with him. The stars lit up the sky like tiny white diamonds as Jaune slowly drifted into sleep.

…

Jaune found himself walking down a road sword and shield resting on his back. He faintly remembered it from somewhere. He wasn't sure where he was going, but that didn't seem to matter to him. He walked up a hill road and his eyes rested back onto a familiar farm and he instantly became relived.

 _I need to get back to Beacon, my team needs me!_ A small part of his brain cried, but another part seemed to doubt it. _No, my team will be better off without me, Pyyrah especially._

As he neared, the screen door opened and two orange and blonde blurs shot towards him.

"Papa!" One of them cried happily as the two slammed into him, he looked down at the two unknown children.

"Uhmm…what?" Jaune said as he looked at the two in confusion, before he could reply he heard the screen door open again.

Jaune looked up to see Pyyrah, but she wasn't wearing any armor, she instead worn a plain white shirt and some jeans. She walked over to him with a smile. "Jaune! You made it home just in time, I've got dinner cooked!"

Jaune was baffled, but before he could respond one of the children let out a blood curdling scream.

"Alyssa!" Pyyrah cried, as she and Jaune looked up to see a red headed child run and hide behind Pyyrah's legs. Jaune was to confused to let out a word, but did want to help her.

"What's going.."

RRRRAAAAGGGHHH!

Jaune turned to see a massive Ursa bounding towards them. With Pyyrah unarmed Jaune was going to have to do the fighting, but she could still help as his eyes spied the family tractor nearby.

"Pyyrah get the children inside and use your semblance to lift the tractor and smash it into the Grimm, I deliver the killing blow." Jaune said commandingly, his eyes locking onto the Grimm and sizing it up. It was an Ursa Major like the one he faced in Forever Falls, he would have no trouble if he could get a clean slice to its head. He crouched into combat stance and waited for Pyyrah.

"Pyyrah! Now!" He said triumphantly, waiting for a tractor to come sailing overhead…it didn't. "Pyyrah?" He said turning to face the woman who looked at him in terror, the children bolting into the house in terror.

"What are you doing!?" He yelled, the Ursa was less than fifty feet away and closing fast.

"What are you doing?!" Pyyrah cried in response, her eyes filled with terror. "We're not hunters, I can't lift that! We're potato farmers for God's Sake!"

Jaune had no time to respond, the Grimm was upon him. He went to draw for his sword, but it wasn't there. He found himself dressed in plain clothes, not a weapon or shield upon him. Jaune had a feeling of dread come upon him as he saw the Ursa stand up, he then immediately felt a wave of peace come over him. He closed his eyes as the Ursa pulled back for a strike, he heard Pyyrahs horrified scream and the deafening roar of the Ursa.

…

Jaune bolted awake, his body drenched in a cold sweat.

 _A dream_ , He thought as the panic subsided from his mind, _just a dream._

He sat there for a minute, letting his breathing and heart rate slow down before getting up packing his things and starting the day.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Welcome Wagon

Sometimes, a special fear comes not from the things that try to hide and lay in wait, but things that appear in plain sight. Jaune felt this unique since of dread as the path into the city appeared before him, a lone stretch of dirt that wound its way through the remaining hills and up into the actual mountains disappearing way above his head on a mountain ridge. A waterfall crested nearby, plunging down and then flowing down a small river that was lost behind the hills to the west.

The eeriness wasn't from the road itself, but the things strewn and thrown across the road. A bunch of smash wagons, with debris spread everywhere, a lone baby doll left abandoned and neglected. Jaune pulled out his sword and shield and continued walking.

 _What the hell happened here?_ He thought in mild shock. It was evident that people were trying to leave, but from what? The answer became apparent immediately with an ax found imbedded into the side of one of the wagons. Jaune examined the blade work, he took a guess that it was handmade made by all the symbols and poor design of the handle. These people were caught up during the fall of Kairos, Jaune looked over at the smashed barrels, they must have been filled with dust.

 _CRUNCH!_

Jaune looked down and had a silent heart attack. Apparently, the people who had been robbed were still here.

Jaune walked carefully over to the side of the road, three skeletons where spread across the scene. Jaune viewed the bones, the wreckage and then silently went along his way, there was nothing to be done. However, they did help him in one way; the stakes were high and death was certainly a possibility. With a renewed sense caution, Jaune began walking up the ridge and put the foothills behind him. It was a zigzagging path with a high slant, the loose gravel itself did not hold his weight very well and he constantly found himself slipping under the uneven road.

After a few minutes, Jaune came to the crest of the ridge and awed at the sight. The waterfall was a part of a large lake that was feed by a massive dam, left abandoned as white foamy water burst forth from the rusted tubes of the dam. Behind that, Jaune could make out the city, his eyes then followed the path down and his heart quickly turned back to dread and sadness.

There were dozens upon dozens of overturned carts and destroyed objects on a bridge that led to the city wall, rapids rushed beneath and to the waterfall that lead back out. It was as if a mass exodus began from the city and was quickly squashed. As he walked through several lifetimes of broken dreams and shattered hopes, he noticed something else. Claw marks, Grimm were involved in this attack, the bandits had used them to help pick off the guards and civilians, then took the loot for themselves. Jaune uttered a grunt of disgust, there tactics were brutal, but effective in achieve their goal. They probably made out with enough dust to supply the entire Beacon Academy for a whole semester. He trekked on, coming upon a door, no… door wasn't right, more like a moveable wall that had opened just enough for Jaune to slip through.

Thankfully, there was no more signs of the massacre inside the city. For Jaune, however, this was even more unnerving as he came out of the entrance and into a massive open pavilion, solid stone from the mountain that had chunks missing where it looked as though artillery had pounded through the area. Nearby, he saw several vale bullheads, destroyed, but newer than the surrounding city. Their silver frame slightly rusted, but still in good condition.

 _I wonder if I can find any dust onboard._ Jaune thought, he began to walk over to the ship. He lifted the latch which opened surprising quick, he then climbed inside and closed the latch back to a crack. He dug around for a few minutes on one of the ships. He didn't find any raw dust crystals, but did find a pistol with half a magazine of red dust inside. He strapped it to his side and went to open the hatch, but froze when he heard noises from outside, he strained to listen for a minute.

"What are we doing out here again? I thought that we had patrolled the perimeter last time." A light female voice whined.

"It doesn't matter; besides I like these strolls with you. Although I wish the scenery was different." A woman responded with a deeper voice, the other woman laughed gaily.

" _Sure_ you do. What else would I expect from someone so clingy." The light voice said, this time the voice sounded nearer.

" _Hhheeeyyy"_ The deeper voiced woman said in a laughing tone. Jaune heard a noise he assumed to be a kiss, the only problem? They sounded like they were right on top of his location. Jaune turned around and surveyed the bullhead, he quickly spied a locker and then quickly jumped inside. The two voices continued talking, as Jaune sat in silence.

"Well, once we all head back to Vale what do you say we stop by that chocolate store on Mulberry Street?" The deeper voice asked, the response was a squeal of delight.

"AAAhhh! Yes, Yes, Yes!" The lighter voice said in rapid gibberish. " _They have a sale on triple chocolate cake surprise, they are selling it buy the slice! THE SLICE!"_ The deeper voice sighed, she was clearly regretting the offer she made, she went to speak.

"We can decide about this when we…"She stopped abruptly.

"What is it?" The lighter voice asked, fear tinging her voice.

"I'm not sure" The other voice said in a menacing tone, "but I'm about to find out." Jaune heard the bullhead door slam open and someone jump inside, gentle footsteps then began down the bullhead and closer to Jaunes hiding-place. The footstep then came to a stop, just outside of the locker, Jaune held his breath. A part of the woman came into view, that part was her arm that was holding a curved great sword. A mechanism of some kind was imbedded in the blade itself, a kind of ranged weapon, Jaune guessed. All he knew was he didn't want to find himself on the receiving end.

The woman walked away slowly and then stepped outside. Jaune however, knew a bluff when he felt it and quickly stepped outside the locker and crawled underneath one of the bench. Instantly, the wall surrounding the locker lit up as a blade slashed through the metal with easy, the locker itself then exploded open. A hole replaced what had been the back off the locker, the woman jumped through ready for a fight. The first thing Jaune notice was the blade was infused with dust, that was bad. The next thing he noticed was the horns on her head, she was a faunus, that was worse. Lastly, he noticed her face…covered by a mask…. a white fang mask.

 _This just isn't my day,_ Jaune thought to himself, _although when has it ever been my day?_

The woman looked around looking for a victim of her attack, but let out a huff when no one was found.

"Find anything?" A bunny faunus popped her head through the bullhead calmly.

"No Bonnie, nothing, guess my nose is acting up. I've been on edge since we got here." The ram faunus retorted gruffly. The deer faunus walked up to her quickly putting a hand on her shoulder as she sheathed her weapon.

"Kara, we've all been stressed, but just hold on. Once we have found what we're looking for we can go back to vale and rest up."

Kara looked back at Bonnie and smiled, "Good because I have some _things_ I've been meaning to do to you." The rabbit faunus blushed and giggled madly. She then gave her a hug and a kiss and they both climbed out of the bullhead. Jaune listened as their footsteps lessened and waited a minute to before leaving. That was to close for comfort to him, he stepped out and then grabbed his bearings and remembered his mission. He began to walk towards the building when he suddenly had an idea. He found a building and then noticed that it was mostly open, he checked his surroundings. Then, he ran inside and found a staircase, he walked upstairs till he was on the utmost floor and looked out over the city.

He pulled out a bag and pulled out a map and a pair of binoculars he borrowed from Yang, she used it for "sightseeing". Odd, since there wasn't anything particularly scenic outside of teams RWBY's room, nothing but trees some hills and the boys outdoor shower room. Jaune, shook his head and laughed and then looked at the map and tried to triangulate his position from key landmarks. He quickly located the entrance he came from and then the tower. The entrance was a gate called " _El Largo Camino a casa_ ", he then traced his hand to the tower.

" _La Espina Negra_?" Jaune didn't understand and pulled out his scroll and ran the names through a translator app. "Hmm, _The Long Road Home_ and _The Black Thorn_ " Jaune pondered as he looked up at the black tower that looked as though it was trying to pierce the sky. The building was solid black, with what appeared at a distance to be a craggily surface, actually being sharp studs that jutted out and looked sharp enough to pierce a Nevermore. The interesting part to Jaune was the tower actually looked to being in good shape as opposed to the rest of the dilapidated buildings. He then looked at the map and then looked to find the library on the streets, he found it…or what was left of it. Jaune quickly realized that the inky black streets weren't streets, but actually water, the streets appeared to be covered in water. The good news was the library appeared to be on higher ground, an eloquent building with black pillars and what was golden trim with two massive wings and a singular center connecting them together. Unfortunately, that was where the good news ended.

The bad new began with the shape of the building, it was bad, _exceptionally bad._ It looked as though a bomb had gone off, an army had stormed the building and a horde of Grimm had ravaged it…all at once. The pillars were crumbling, half of the building had sunk into the ground and looked like a bog the other looked read to crumble at the slightest bombardment. The news got even worse as Jaune peered at the center of the building. The pillars there looked a little better, with only a single pillar having fallen over to show any damage. However, there was a flag, a white fang flag, the library was there base of operations.

 _We don't want the artifact to fall into…undesirable hands…_

Ozpins words sprang to the forefront of his mind as it clicked to Jaune what the White Fang were doing so far from vale. They wanted the object, and were now excavating the library to find it. He peered through the binoculars and maxed the scope to get a more detailed picture. It didn't look good, there were guards on patrol and armed guards. As he peered at the door to the library his heart sunk even further, there was a lot of people and weapons inside as well. It looked like the entire White Fang militia had planted their feet in Kairos. He stepped away from his perch and sat down, this mission went from hard to impossible.

"Well now what?" He said to himself, he looked out the window from the opposite side of the building. The sun was beginning to set; he couldn't decide what to do next so he began to make camp right there. Jaune reasoned it would be safer than trying to move at night since faunus had better eyesight at night and would probably spot him on patrol.

He sat down as he ate one of his rations and pondered his situation, he guessed he would have to head back for Ozpin and report on the situation.

 _Either come back successful or don't come back at all_ …

Glynda's words resonated in Jaunes minds, he laid down and looked up at the ceiling. Sleep took time, but when it came, it immediately washed over Jaune.

…

Jaune made it back to Beacon, he was before Ozpin and Glynda, and they weren't happy.

"So you failed to retrieve the artifact, the White Fang are literally digging for it and you _left_?!" Glynda said in shock. She looked over to Ozpin, "I told you we should have given it to Team RWBY or Ms. Nikos and removed this pathetic cheat of a student." She said accusingly towards, Ozpin. He threw his hands up and let out a sigh of disgust.

"Perhaps you were right." He said, "I normally can spot potential anywhere and indeed Jaune has tremendous potential… _to disappoint it seems_ " He said holding an angry glare of Jaune. The elevator behind Jaune dinged, he turned to face teams RWBY and (J)NPR and a mystery girl with aqua blue hair.

"You called for us Professor?" Ruby said in an inquisitive tone.

"Yes," Glynda said walking towards them. "It appears Jaune has failed utterly as predicted. He has now left an artifact with the White Fang that has tremendous power and could lead to the fall of Vale if not the entire world!"

"What, I needed backup!" He turned to his teammates. "Come on guys! Lets go back and show the white fang whose boss!" He said, trying to rally his team with confidence. Instead, both teams gave him looks of pity and sadness, Pyyrah wouldn't even lift her head.

"Who wants to tell him?" Blake said quietly, Weiss immediately smiled and went to pip up before being nudged in the ribs by Yang. She looked at her team as they gave her glares, she let out a disappointed huff and remained silent.

"Jaune" Pyyrah said quietly, he looked at her downcast face.

"What's going on?" Jaune said suspiciously, Glynda triumphantly walked over to the blue-haired mystery girl.

Glynda spoke with a smile. "This is Claire Cyan, she is the top student of Signal and while she is a year behind we've decided to use her…" Jaune knew what was coming, time slowed and his mouth went dry. "…to replace you as the team leader!"

Jaune felt his knees go weak and he walked over to the window the prop himself up against the pane. He turned and his own team, save for Pyyrah, gave him sympathetic smiles.

"Your plenty good," Nora said in an unusually timid voice, "it's just she is…well…Claire!" The girl smiled meekly at the compliment, Jaune grimaced.

"She is pretty nice." Ruby said, giving him a sympathetic smile.

"She enjoys my jokes and it looks like we'll get along for a Xiao Long time." Yang said, also sympathetic in tone, Jaune felt sick. The girl giggled at the pun, Jaune looked up at her with a raw anger making his eyes glisten with tears.

"We will always support you on your endevors, but this is not the path for you." Ren said firmly.

"Oh look he's crying…" Weiss whispered, Jaune wiped the lone tear from the corner of his eye, all feelings of romance had been drained from his heart.

"She's also a faunus, fighting to help with the Grimm problem in Menagerie, I respect that." Blake said in admiration of the blue haired girl. Jaune looked as the girl showed her wolf ears.

"Pyyrah," Jaune called out in desperation looking for some form of salvation, she lifted her eyes to reveal a cold glare.

"I thought you would fight for what you loved," She said looking back down, her hands clenched together tightly and close to her chin, she was in deep thought. "Clearly whatever I believed…whatever I felt…it wasn't real, was it? I was…misguided." She said giving him a glare that went through his very soul. "You clearly don't love me, your team, or yourself. I believed that there was more to you and that you were brave, but clearly, I was wrong." Her voice was ice, but before she could continue Glynda stepped in.

"Please go to the air field Mr. Arc, a bullhead will be waiting for you, the real hunters will start the mission immediately." She turned to Team RWBY and KPRN(Capricorn).

"What say we give a few hungry hunters a chance at glory?" She said smiling at all of them. Both teams smiling at the thought of an epic adventure. She then went to tap her tablet, but stopped and then stoically looked up at Jaune. "Mister Arc, the elevator is waiting."

"No! I'm going with my team and we are going to kick some White Fang ass!" Jaune said walking to grab his sword and shield from the table, right before he touched them he felt his entire body be pulled back. He turned to glare at Glynda, but she only returned a blank stare. The elevator dinged and opened, Jaune tried to reach for his weapons, but got pulled back. He turned his head to find the culprit.

"Pyyrah!" He cried, as his body suddenly shot back for the open door, the red heads hand covered in a black mist as she used his armor to propel him towards the open elevator. His body slammed into the back of the elevator. He couldn't move and was pinned against the wall, suddenly he was released and fell to the floor. He sat up and propped his head against the wall, he looked up to see Pyyrah shadowing the door. "Pyyrah…" He said weakly, looking for any kind of regret or sadness in her eyes.

"Sorry Jaune," she said, her voice and eyes were cold and now without pity. "You made your decision," the doors of the elevator became surrounded in a black mist. "Now deal with it." Pyyrah finished, the doors slammed shut and Jaune was enveloped in darkness.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Keep your enemies _closer…_

Jaune was sitting in the midday sun, he was sitting on the roof of a building barefoot, letting his shoes dry from his trek through the flooded streets below. The water had mercifully been only ankle deep, Jaune had decided his best bet to get into the compound was by looking for gaps in the patrols, and he was beginning to notice something interesting. One of the guards was a bull faunas, two large black horns jutting out from either side of his head. The thing was, his attention was drawn to movement and a flag in a light breeze seemed to keep pulling his attention to look left. Putting on his shoes, he decided it was time to make his move, he took his binoculars and put them back in his in his pack. He left his pack, where he slept the night before, the nightmare he had giving him all the motivation he needed to at least try and grab the artifact.

He hopped down from the roof onto a wall which had collapsed and made a convenient walkway down to the road. He hid himself behind a shattered statue of some kind and then looked at the space between the library and where he was hiding. There was a good twenty feet of space with the faunus back turned as he looked at the flag, Jaune counted down.

 _1…_ _2…_ _3!_

Jaune bolted, the ground was mercifully dry allowing him to run as fast as his feet would carry him. His target was a set of stairs that ran down into what Jaune assumed lead to the basement. He made it half way before he ended up tripping over his own feet, in desperation he leaped.

 _Humpf!_

He landed in the stairwell and rolled down a couple of steps before catching himself. He wanted to let out a moan, but caught himself at the sounds of footsteps coming towards his location. He quickly pushed himself up against the wall as the man guarding the street stepped over to the railing, his horns clearly visible in his shadow on the wall adjacent to were Jaune was curled up. He leaned against the railing, looking beyond the stairwell onto the street, his eyes searching for movement. Jaunes luck pulled through for a change, the breeze picked up causing the flag to cascade and snap in the wind. Immediately, the bull walked back over to where the flag was hanging. Jaune let out a sigh and continued down the stairs, he found two steel doors that would have impeded his progress, but his luck pulled through once more as the door were smashed open as if by a Grimm. He walked inside and immediately had a sinking feeling in his gut, his luck had run out.

There were multiple basements, the bottom most being completely submerged in inky black water. There was a platoon of White Fang guard meandering about the areas closer to the main building, with the floors looking to be in much better shape than where Jaune was, his shoes sinking a bit into the moldy wood floors. He looked down at the inky black water.

 _Looks like I might be swimming if the artifact is down there._ He thought as he looked for a way down to the water.

"WATCH OUT!" Someone yelled, causing Jaune to instinctively duck before looking up as a woman let out a scream in absolute terror. Jaune looked on, a woman had walked onto some of the unstable floors and came to close to the edge, she had fallen into the water several floors below. She splashed around for a minute before getting her bearings, before she started to swim towards a collapsed floor which angled into the water. Jaune looked at the woman, she was a faunas with a tail of some kind; As she was swimming, something let out a low, deep growl. She froze in the water and looked around her eyes landing on Jaune, she gave a shocked expression and began to shout something.

 _FFFFOOOOSSSSHHH!_

The water where the woman had been suddenly exploded in a foamy white explosion, she didn't even have a chance to scream. Everything after that went deathly quiet, the white fang acolytes standing as close to the edge as they dared. Suddenly, _something_ emerged, it was Grimm, but unlike any Jaune had ever seen before. It was solid black with a white design running down it's back, scales glistening on its body when exposed to the rays of light shining into the library. The acolytes, slowly stepped away, save for one who fell to her knees and began to silently bawl. Jaune recognized her as the ram faunas who he hid from the day before.

She then stood up and whipped out her curved greatsword, she switched it to ranged mode.

"Damn you…" she muttered under clenched teeth. She then fired everything she had, "DAMN YOU!" she screamed, the water exploding as steam rose into the air.

 _Click, click, click, click_ the weapon echoing through the air as she stared at the water, as the steam lifted the water was cleared, the Grimm was still there. It let out a low, unamused growl before sinking back into the inky dark water. The woman, let out a grimace before getting up and walking over to the exit. As she went for the door, it suddenly whipped open causing her to let out a gasp at who walked in.

"You're _freaking_ _kidding_ _me!_ " Jaune muttered in defeat as Adam Taurus walked into the building. All the White Fang members suddenly started busying themselves and trying to act important, Jaune ducked as his gaze panned around the long hall. He turned and faced the ram faunas.

"What have you found?" He said menacingly, his fingers tapping on his sword hilt in impatience.

"W-we found a Grimm in the water," Kara stammered her bold attitude Jaune witnessed before replaced with fear. "We won't be able to deal with it until the water is drained. The water also completely blocks the lowest floor, where the vault is suspected to be."

Adam let out a frown, causing Kara to start twiddling her fingers together. Adam, finally spoke.

"Very well, we will soon be able to drain the water. Until then, plan on how to take down the Grimm. I expect results Ms. Greystone, do not fail me like my _last_ partner, you will not enjoy the consequences."

"Yes, sir." Kara said weakly, her legs trembling.

Jaune let out a sigh of relief as Adam turned and walked out the door.

"By the way, there is news from Vale." Adam said not turning back as he stood in the door way, the light giving him a gold silhouette.

"What is it?" Kara said curiously.

"Apparently, the hunter's academy has sent a huntsman to try and get the artifact." He said with a wicked smile as Kara's eyes went wide.

"Really?" Kara said in shock before quickly composing herself into a more serious manner. "Then we must be on alert for him, I'll have Bill setup a watch-post for…!"

"No need…" Adam interrupted, turning and looking at her confused expression. "He's already here, aren't you little hunter?" He said loudly to make sure Jaune good hear.

That sent the rest of the members on alert. Kara herself whipped around and reloaded her weapon before walking up to where everyone. "EVERYONE! Be on alert, find the hunter and KILL HIM!" She yelled, everyone on que began walking down the hall checking each aisle. Jaune watched as the some of the guards approached, he was ready to scream. Thankfully, his training with Pyrrha kicked in and he slowed his breathing and heart rate and focused. They all had better vision and hearing than an average human which was an advantage, but it could be turned against them. He walked around and surveyed his area, it was a little foyer with a receptionist desk and a few rotted desks, not much hope. He quickly walked over to the desk and discovered something.

"An AP system," he whispered to himself. It looked very old, nothing like the current tech at beacon, just a microphone, a small channel dial and a volume dial. He noticed it was turned off and unplugged to the outlet under the desk. "No way, there is no freaking way Jaune, think of something else." He said to himself.

"Hey, I'm catching a scent! This way!" A voice shouted, followed by footsteps towards the foyer area. Jaune dove under the desk plugged the AP system in. He looked up on the table, the light on the system glowed to life.

"No flipping way!" Jaune said with a grin he quickly turned the volume up to max and went to grab the mic.

"HERE!" A voice shouted, Jaune looked up to see a kid, a freaking _kid_. He couldn't have been older than eleven. Suddenly a group of armed men and women rounded the corner, Kara at the lead.

"Get on the ground filthy hunter!" She barked, Jaune looked at her and smirked before grabbing the microphone and hitting the button. A shrill noise pierced the air, Jaune could barely hear it, but the faunas were another story, they all covered the ears and shirked in pain. Jaune stood up and walked forward daringly.

"Who's the filthy hunter again?" Jaune said mockingly.

 _POW!_

Suddenly, the microphone in Jaunes hand exploded, causing him to jump in surprise. Jaune looked to see Kara holding her curve sword in gun mode, the rest of the white fang members stood up glaring at Jaune.

" _You…are…_ _DEAD!"_ Kara said through clenched teeth. She lowered her weapon, point blank at Jaunes chest, " _GOOD RIDANCE!"_

Jaune pulled out his shield just before she pulled the trigger.

 _POW!_

Jaune was knocked back from the blast with such force he went through the molded wall of the foyer. He hit an old support beam causing the roof and subsequent floor above to collapse. The floor that Jaune and the white fang were on began to collapse due to the sudden force. Jaune got up and ran to the exit as the floor beneath him groaned, cracked, and then crumbled away revealing the inky black water below. Jaune felt his feet begin to slip and made a desperate jump for the door, he grabbed it as the floor stopped falling, he turned to see the destruction he had caused.

There were around ten White Fang acolytes that had fallen into the water, they quickly began to be dragged down into the inky depths below by an unseen Grimm. Kara herself was hanging onto a ledge leftover from the destroyed floor. She saw him and immediately began to shoot wildly at him, each shot missing their mark by several feet.

Jaune bolted through the door, and up some stairs into the main building, he instantly realized why his plan initially worked as the main building clearly had power coming from somewhere, as lights lit the hallway. He walked swiftly to a window and looked outside, he was on the ground floor but the outside was now swarming with White Fang who were searching the perimeter, he was trapped. He raced down the hall and began peering into rooms as he went, there was a room filled with old furniture, another that appeared to be steam room which were in use judging by the steam wafting out of the door.

He continued down the hall and came across an eloquent door leading into the next room, he pulled at it. It appeared to be locked, Jaune slid the gun he had found from its holster and took aim.

 _BLAM!_

"Eeep!" Jaune heard a high-pitched squeal and turned to see a woman with dog ears looking at him with shock, she was in a night gown and completely unarmed.

"Uh…" Jaune let out in absolute confusion before the woman turned and ran.

"INTRUDER!" She yelled as she ran down the hall.

"Crap…" Jaune said as he quickly ran into the now open door. He took a step and then immediately walked into water, the entire floor was covered in ankle deep water and the hall was crowded with abandoned furniture. Rather than take a chance of stepping into a hole into the floor and sinking into the water where a Grimm might be lurking, Jaune started walking across the furniture.

"This way!" He heard coming from the door he had just come through.

"Uh-oh" Jaune jumped from a couch he was standing on to a mahogany desk that was wedged into one of the many doorways and leapt inside the room onto a rusted desk. The desk held his weight but let out an awful amount of noise, he jumped to a small metal vault that was sitting half submerged. As Jaune stood there, he started working on controlling his breathing.

"Spread out and check the rooms!" He heard a voice that sounded an awful lot like that Kara woman. Jaune sat completely still, suddenly he heard a low growl.

"OH SHIT!" A man said, before firing his weapon wildly, a few bullet holes appearing near were Jaune was perched. The rest quickly followed suit and quickly began to retreat while firing. Something large slid by the other side of the wall Jaune was leaning against. Jaune let out a gulp.

 _I think I should look for higher ground,_ he thought quickly. He saw a gaping hole in the ceiling above leading to the next floor. He jumped up and grabbed the ledge, he then pulled himself up and walked in to the hallway. It was vacant, he looked down the hallway and saw a glorious sight. An open window next to the window of the adjacent building, he found renewed strength and began to jog towards it. Suddenly several White Fang guards appeared and began to charge towards him, Jaune pulled out his sword and charged them. One moved ahead while the other dropped behind him, the one who pulled forward drew out a Moro Kris.

The two blades connected.

CLINK!… SHNIK!...TING!

Jaune decided to draw back and be more defensive, and raised his shield to block the guards next swipe. His blade bounced off, but the guard immediately went into his next move, grabbing the hilt with both hands and going for a thrust.

"Argh!" Jaune yelled, he deflected the blade, but it still managed to slice against his side. His aura blocked the wound, but not the pain. He focused on a new strategy, glancing down at his feet for a second.

The guard went for a high slash, but as he stepped forward Jaune kicked his foot to the side, causing the guard to stumble. Jaune capitalized on this error by bashing him in the head with his shield, those lessons with Pyrrha were finally paying off.

He didn't have time to savor his success however, the other guard stepped forward with a plain bastard sword. He took a massive swipe at Jaune and missed, Jaune reposted with a jab, but the guard lept back. Jaune pushed forward and waited for him to use his sword in a particular way. The guard took both of his hands and thrust the blade forward, just like Jaune wanted him to.

Jaune used his shield to deflect the blade down, then stepped on it and leapt forward giving a wild slash towards the guards' head. Unfortunately, the guard moved just in time and pulled hard on the blade, causing Jaune to trip backwards. The other guard had already stood up and readied his blade for a deathly blow, Jaune rolled just before the blade came down. He turned his head only to see his reflection in the blade, mere inches from his face.

He rolled forward, using the momentum to get onto his feet and stumbled toward the window. The guards began to double team on Jaune one slashing after the other, Jaune was struggling to keep up. His aura was fine, but his limbs began to ache for exhaustion, he had been on the run for quite some time. He finally reached the window, just in time to see a White Fang guard appear in the window of the next building, with a pretty big gun. Jaune instinctively dove into the room to the left, and nearly fell into a hole, the room had caved into the floor below.

 _BOOM!_

The man had fired, causing the dust to scream straight into the guards and knocked them back. It also caused Jaune to fall into the room below him.

" _Shit!"_ He yelled, as he landed onto the floor with a thud. Thankfully, this room itself was not submerged under water, he quickly got up and ran to a nearby window. He looked out and didn't see any guards nearby, he smashed the window open and stumbled outside. He was relieved to taste fresh air and feel the sun on his face.

He began to run towards a series of abandoned buildings. Walking away from the library, he then ran down a street and kept twisting and turning down abandoned roads, until he finally came to a stop. He was panting hard, his hands to his knees as he bent over. After a minute, he stood up and tried to find his bearings. He needed to find his pack and come up with a strategy to get back into the library.

"HA!" Some yelled behind him, Jaune twisted around, unable to bring his shield up in time.

"Oof!" Jaune breathed, as something smashed in to his stomach, sending him flying to the ground. He looked up to see Kara standing over him triumphantly breathing heavily, she had been running to keep up with his trail. "Ha, to think you've been causing so much trouble! I thought the hunters out of Beacon were to be feared, respected, but you are _none_ of those things."

Jaune tried to get up, but saw her blade closing in and went to block it with his sword, she parried and flicked it out of his hand. She then smashed the face of the blade into his, knocking him back, he weakly lifted his head up. He was done, his aura was drained, his body screaming to stop. His eyes came into focus just in time to see Kara standing over him, her horns giving her silhouette a menacing appearance as she clicked the sword into gun form. "Wait for the flash." She said with a grin.

"Wait!" A voice cried, Jaune could only turn his head to see who it was, it was the rabbit faunas from before. She and a handful of other guards jogged up to her position and gathered around him.

"What is it?" Kara said in an annoyed tone.

"Don't kill him!" The rabbit Faunus, Bonnie as Jaune remembered, said walking over and looking at him innocently. Jaune finally got a good look at her, she had sandy blonde her and white ears making her look even more innocent. Jaune began to croak out a thank you. She finished looking at him and then spat on his breast plate. "We need to take him to Adam for interrogation, who knows what secrets he might spill to us." She then smiled at Jaune making his blood run cold, "He will talk, even if we have to cut out his tongue to do so." Whatever 'thank you' Jaune was going to say quickly died upon his lips.

"Fine," Kara whined, "Let me at least get the chance to knock him out." Bonnie gave her a beaming smile of approval. Kara then lifted him up and drew back a fist that was covered by a brass knuckle made out of different rings that interlocked on her fingers.

"Good night…blondie." She said, getting a laugh from the other White Fang members.

 _So this is it_ Jaune thought as the world seemed to close in around him, _this is how I die._ His mind reeled back to how it all began, the talk with Glynda, choosing to go, talking with his friend one last time.

 _Well Pyrrha I fought for you, for Ren, for Nora, for everyone…I'm sorry I just didn't fight hard enough._

Kara then threw a fake punch causing Jaune to flinch at the movement, the others laughed.

 _Pyrrha…_ his thoughts drifted to her, the emotions he felt the night before he left came back. He pictured her face, her smile, causing a smile began to creep across his face drawing a confused look upon her face that was quickly replaced with anger, she drew back again.

 _I fought with you, for you…perhaps I even…even…_ Jaune felt a strange surge enter his body, in the back of his mind, something had _awoken._

Closed his eyes and felt her hand just begin to collide with his face, the energy that had entered his body was growing before and with her punch seemed to just explode.

A bright light filled the area and Kara fell back in pain.

"ARGH!" She cried as she rolled on the floor, the rest were left temporarily stunned and blinded by the light, their heightened senses being a disadvantage. Jaune hit the ground and then slowly stood up and looked around, he stood there for a second in stunned silence before he grabbed his shield and went to grab his sword.

 _POW_

Jaune looked up to see one of the Guards was firing blindly in his direction and they were quickly getting their sight back, Jaune took off without his sword not wanting to find out what would happen if they got a hold of him again. He turned left down a street, then right, then left, then right and continued this until finally reaching a dead end. He turned around to see Bonnie and Kara still on his trail, the rest of the guards having taken a different route to try and locate him.

"Well, I underestimated you." Kara said, a hint of admiration in her voice. "You're much more resourceful than I thought." She then lowered her weapon and switched it into gun form once more. Jaune was out of aura, time, luck, and energy, and he got the feeling that the energy he felt was a one-time deal for a while. Jaune looked at her and then looked down.

"What is your deal!" He said, in an exasperated tone. " It's not like you've got anything to prove!" He said throwing his hands in the air.

"You know nothing!" Kara said, also tired and running low on Aura, that trick he did a while ago really did a number on her, but she wasn't going to quit. "Ever since Adams last partner abandoned him he's been harsh on me saying things like 'Blake would have done it this way' or 'Blake never complained about this'." She complained in an obnoxious tone, " _With your death I'll finally show him that I'm better than she'll ever be!"_ She yelled in absolute rage, "Now do me a favor and DIE!" She then fired a shot aimed straight at his head. Jaune raised his shield, and turned his head, but with his Aura gone and strength totally wasted it wasn't going to provide much protection, he was done for.

PING! BOOOM!

Jaune winced, but no force came, instead it became deathly quiet. Jaune peered from behind his shield, a figure stood between him and the two nutcases. The person was in some black armor which hid almost every inch of their body and a helmet hid their face, it looked like a woman judging by the outline of their figure but that was about it. Whoever she was, she was clearly not to be messed with.

"Who?" Bonnie began to say, but was stopped as the shadowy figure seeming to just materialized next to her, her eyes wide and mouth open to let out a scream.

THUNK!

The girl suddenly collapsed, remaining motionless on the ground. Jaune looked and saw the shadow woman holding a staff of some kind, it came up to her shoulder.

"You BASTARD!" Kara screamed firing wild at the figure who casually seemed to block any of the shots that actually came close to hitting their mark. Kara then switched it back to a curved great sword and went into sword before grabbing the hilt with both hands. She let out a yell before swinging her sword in intricate swoops and jabs, but the mysterious individual didn't even seem to be trying to defend against her. Instead the individual simply kept sidestepping and twisting around her, literally spinning circles around her.

Kara let out a frustrated roar, her technique slowly crumbling as she went from using exotic moves to simply hacking and slashing trying to at least make the figure fight back for a possible chance to parry. Instead the figure waited patiently and then made its move. As Kara slashed downward the figure went from stepping backwards and keeping out of range to surging forward, past Kara. Before she could even figure out what had happened it was too late.

THWACK!

The figure spun the staff around like a high-powered fan and brought it against the back of Kara's head. Jaune winced as she saw Kara go limp, she would be feeling _that_ when she woke up. Suddenly the figure turned and in a few seconds stood before Jaune, the figure was level with his height and Jaune got the feeling the person behind the black helmet was sizing him up. Jaune stared at the black veil before him, suddenly something caught his eye.

"LOOK OUT!" He yelled as he pushed the figure aside and drew up his shield, suddenly an explosion sent him hurtling into the back of the wall. One of the guards had appeared with a high powered rifle, loaded with explosive rounds. Jaune felt his consciousness beginning to slide, he glanced up and saw the figure _deal with_ the White Fang lackey. He began to get tunnel vision and his vision ultimately grew dimmer and dimmer, his last view was the shadowy figure walking towards him, like death itself coming to claim him.

…..

Jaune didn't dream, but his mind flashed with events that had transpired. He woke up slowly, but when he came to, he tried to sit up, but grimaced at a dull pain on his chest. He realized he was bare chested and looked around to see where he was. It was a dark room with rocks dipping down from the ceiling, a small open fire lit the room and an assortment of home items scattered around the…cave…he was in a cave.

"Your awake…good." A female voice said, causing Jaune to jump and then wince in pain.

"Ouch!" He said, it felt like his ribs were broken, as he looked at the black and blue bruises on his chest.

"You took quiet a hit, but your Aura should take care of that in about a day." The shadowy figure appeared in Jaunes view, it was definitely a woman. She still wore her outfit covering her body and walked over to a table, "I believe this is yours," She said taking and throwing his bag and shield on the floor. Jaune looked at bag and then at her.

"You didn't find a sword by any chance?" He asked hopefully, but the woman shook her head.

"After you overwhelmed the group and ran, they confiscated your weapon before taking up pursuit." She said.

She walked over to her staff and picked it up, she then walked and stood over Jaune, "I have a few questions myself." As she stood over him, Jaune realized he was in trouble, he was in no position to lie and certainly not fight back. He laid his head back on the pillow and began to explain why he was there, by time he was done he felt tired again, his bruises were beginning to lighten as his aura did its job.

The woman pondered a moment, her cloaked hand reaching up to shielded face she then walked over and placed her staff onto a holder. She then walked over and began to take of her clothing, "So Ozpin finally wants to bring the eye to beacon, eh?" She took of her cloak, revealing a tank top, her lower back exposed showing scars and cuts. A tattoo ran down her left arm, it looked tribal, with interconnecting lines from her shoulder to her elbow. She took off her leggings, a few scars but no tattoos. She had a dark complexion, her skin was tan and had a radiant glow. Tone muscles stretched and contracted as she moved, she was clearly a warrior of some kind.

Finally, she unhooked her veil causing Jaune to let out a gasp. It wasn't her deep blue eyes that made him do so, nor the scar that ran down her cheek giving her more of a devil-may-care look. It wasn't even the short, fiery red hair, although that may have been the biggest contributor.

It was that when all things came together she was a dead ringer for an older, much more battle worn Pyrrha Nikos.


	7. Chapter 7

"P-Pyrrha!?" Jaune sputtered, his eyes going wide, before wincing in pain.

The woman simply, cocked her head to the side quizzically, "Hmm?"

Jaune took a second to calm himself and looked at her, while many of her features were striking, she wasn't Pyrrha. "Sorry, you just remind me of a friend." The woman looked at him with a smile of pity.

"I see, what is your name blondie?" She said, a coy smile appearing as Jaune smirked at the nickname.

"It's Jaune, Jaune Arc" He said, he looked her over as she walked over to a table and picked up a mug.

"Greetings," She replied in a friendlier tone, and walked back over to him, handing over the mug. Jaune took a swig and found himself enjoying the drink, it was a mix of honey, tea, and something else Jaune couldn't place. She looked him in the eyes, "My name is Bianca Coalhart, and I am the keeper of the Silver Eye you are seeking."

Jaunes eyes went wide, a plethora of questions swimming in his eyes. Before he could speak she put a finger to his lips. "Shh," she cooed, "drink, sleep, and when you are better tomorrow you will have your answers." Jaune wanted to fight, but found his eyes getting heavy, he took another sip and then put the mug on a nightstand next to the bed, and quickly succumbed to his exhaustion.

…

Jaune woke up groggy but feeling much better, save for a dull pounding in his head. He lifted his head and looked at his chest, his bruises were gone, a small ache in his chest was all that remained. He sat up and looked around, he was still in the cave, but now the woman was gone. He sat up and then looked around, a lot of the furniture from around him was old, perhaps from the city before it went to ruin. A small lantern held a fire which lit the area and revealed to him what appeared to be an entrance. He walked around and found a small stone stove and a wooden kitchen table, it was a tiny but inviting place.

He continued to walk into a much larger cave and found what he could only describe as a small library, small braziers lighting the room. Rows of shelves all lined with books, he looked at some of the titles. Jaune couldn't read it though, as the books appeared to be written in some old language. They looked like some of the books that were placed in special rooms in the library, somewhat rare and unquestionably old and fragile. Now they were all in front of him, he picked one up and looked it over for some clue as to what it was about.

"Fancy yourself a read?" A voice inquired, Jaune let out a yelp and spun around to find Bianca looking him over curiously.

"Um, I-I thought they looked interesting, b-but the language…I can't read it." Jaune said sheepishly. Bianca casually walked over and grabbed the book out of his hand, looking at the title, "The Allocation & Strengthening of Aura." She said in a matter-of-fact tone, "in the old days they put some of the more… _advanced_ writings in the old language, to keep novices from trying to use some of advanced techniques with weapons, aura and dust." Her hands flipping through the pages as she looked the book over and then put it back in its place.

"The weapons and dust makes sense I guess, but what techniques with aura could be dangerous?" Jaune asked inquisitively. Bianca looked at him up in amusement, "that's a nice joke, but in all seriousness, you of all people should know what happens when some has a gift with Aura." Jaune looked back at her in confusion.

"No actually…what are you talking about?" Jaune asked, Bianca looked at him and shock, her mouth agape.

"Jaune, what can you do with aura?" She asked in a serious question. Jaune felt put on the spot, as if he was in one of Professor Ooblecks class.

"Um… use it to shield yourself from attacks?" He said meekly.

"And?" Bianca pressed, Jaune simply threw up his hands in defeat, causing Bianca to let out a laugh of shock. "So you have no idea…and your one of the most gifted people I've seen in a _long_ time." She laughed and shook her head, "the world is a strange place, and we live in even _stranger_ times."

Jaune could only look at her in absolute confusion as she looked over at him and began to regain her composure.

"Ok then, wow," she said, her features then taking on a more serious look. "I have news for you, good, bad and ugly, which do you want first?" Jaune pondered his options for a moment.

"What is the good news?"

"The good news is the group you were fighting against are not even close to finding the eye." She said, noting the relief in Jaunes posture.

"The bad news is that we can't get to where it is for at least two weeks. A snow storm has moved in and is moving pretty slow." She then saw Jaune tense up at the thought as he quickly glanced over to her. "What? I'm not that bad of a host, am I?"

"N-no, it's not that I … was just wanting to get back to Beacon soon." Jaune said quickly, deflating at the thought of being stuck amidst Grimm, White Fang, and this stranger.

"Is this because of Pyrrha?" Bianca asked in a knowing tone, Jaune looked at her with confusion.

"What would give you that idea?" Jaune asked in a more demanding tone than he wanted to sound, Bianca merely threw up her hands in defense and smiled.

"Nothing…except for the fact that you moaned out her name in your sleep… in a rather interesting tone of voice." She laughed as she spoke, laughing even harder as Jaune turned redder and redder.

"I…I…I care about my team! Ren, Nora, and Pyrrha! I just worry about them, that's all." Jaune said quickly, he then turned a bit away from Bianca and became very interested in his shoes.

The older woman merely chuckled and walked up very close to Jaune, causing the man to give an exasperated look as his face remained feverishly red. "Oh no, honey…" She said in a seductive tone as she lifted his head with a finger, gently moved a rouge blonde lock of hair from Jaunes blood red face, Jaune took a large gulp as she continued. "I didn't hear you call out for a Ren or a Nora, but Pyrrha? Oh my! …I haven't heard a man call out a woman's name like that since my younger years. It seems you're in need of some …intimate team exercises, if you want I can lend you my …experience." She then put both hands around his neck and a single leg around his waist, putting his head against hers and exposing her rather ample bosom to Jaune.

Jaune, stepped back a few steps and managed to gather just enough of his thoughts. "So, what was the ugly news?"

"Hmm? oh yes," Bianca seemed to snap back to her senses and continued speaking, although she seemed to pout a bit at Jaunes quick thinking. "The compound where the eye was hidden is right in the heart of a huge nest of Grimm. You will need to bring out your finest swordsmanship if we are going to have a good chance of making it to the eye and getting out."

Jaune finally found a small stool and sat down, "The Grimm and The White Fang… well, looks like I'm out of luck." Bianca crouched next to him, all signs of pouting or seduction in her eyes, instead a look of concern dominated her face.

"What do you mean?" Bianca asked, Jaune tried to brush her off, but she ended up grabbing his shoulder and making him look her in the eyes. "Tell me, now." Her friendly tone now gone.

Jaune caved, explaining his faked transcripts and how he snuck his way into Beacon, how Pyrrha had been helping him train, when he was through Bianca gave him a amazed look. "You did all this, just so you could be the hero?! You can die easily at a huntsman academy, very, _very,_ easily! That is why only the best are allowed to enter _you_ _idiot_!" She then smacked him over the back of the head drawing out a yelp from Jaune as he rubbed his head.

" I know! I just…I just…" Jaune tried to explain.

"You what! You had a perfectly good chance to leave! What on earth caused you to stay" Bianca demanded.

"I just wanted to protect the defenseless, the people I loved, I don't care about the glory!" Jaune yelled, at his limit, he had let that question bottle up and it had been weighing on him ever since he started the mission. "It doesn't matter now the white fang are on top of it, Grimm I couldn't dream of fighting alone are everywhere, I'm finished…" Bianca sat there silently looking him over, before she let out a sigh.

"Would you be willing to improve?" She said to him in a serious tone, a dangerous light filling her eyes.

"What do you mean?" Jaune asked cautiously, he watched as she stood and towered over him a half-cocked smile on her face.

"I mean to get onto the same level as your teammates, to be able to take the artifact back to stay with your precious team. What would you be willing to do?" Bianca asked, Jaune thought for a moment before answering, he knew only one way to respond.

He then stood up and looked her squarely in the eyes. "My team has risked their life for me and I am willing to do the same for them." He hoped that answer was good enough, it was the truth after all.

Bianca nodded, "Very well then. Should you accept I will be willing to impart my knowledge upon you and try to unlock your potential. You may not know it yet, but you are powerful and could be the best damn warrior seen it quite a while, though I will warn you right here and now, my training will be a little more… _dangerous_ than what your use to in school."

Jaune thought for a minute before answering, "I accept."

Bianca nodded, "then we start immediately. We will find out if your training worked when you and I go to retrieve the eye in two weeks." She then promptly turned around and walked down the bookshelf and pulled out a book, handing it towards Jaune. "This is what you will be working on first."

Jaune was thrown off guard, he tried to read the title, but couldn't even begin to understand the old language. "I can't read this; I don't know how!" Jaune said, as Bianca rolled her eyes and took a seat at a desk, her response was to pull up a chair.

"That is why I will be teaching you." She then motioned for Jaune to join her. Jaune took a seat beside her she put her finger at the start of the title. "The Use and Manipulations of Aura."


	8. Chapter 8

"Focus…" A lone voice called out.

"I'm trying…" Jaune called out his eyes closed.

THWACK!

"Ow! Dammit!" Jaune said irritated, he had been trying to work on using his aura to feel movement as his newfound tutor claimed he would be able to do. They were in a dark cave, only lit by a single candle, how Bianca could find her way around and attack him and then just as quickly jump back into the darkness was beyond him.

"You're not focused, if you were, you wouldn't have even noticed my voice. You are leaping off into a new world, focus or perish." Bianca scolded, she was beginning to become impatient and her swings where beginning to have a lot more force behind them.

Jaune closed his eyes once more and went into combat stance. His eyes remained calm and closed for a few minutes, but after a while his brow crinkled in concertation and his eyes began to squint. Bianca walked around him for a few minutes, her shoes echoing around the cave.

Jaune tried to different stances, after a while his thoughts began to drift.

The night before had ended with Bianca teaching Jaune the fundamentals of the language the books were written in. The language was Pretium , an old language that was spoken in the areas that would conglomerate to become Vale.

"It is the language of heroes." Bianca had said, Jaune and her had continued on, the book itself had been on the use of Aura. One of the abilities he decided to try and learn was some sort of web that would allow the individual to track people based on their own aura, even in complete darkness.

Right now, however, Jaune was the only one in complete darkness and feeling like fool because of it. Jaune finally decided to use one weapon he had been relying on since he started the mission, luck. He began to listen in and focus on her shoes, in the darkness, Jaune made a sudden, wide sweeping, arc in the direction of the noise.

THWACK!

"Shit, Shit, Shit!" Jaune yelped dropping his wooden training sword and grabbing his head, rubbing where a new forming knot was growing.

" _tsk, tsk, tsk,_ You need to do this right and we will take all day if we have to." She chimed, suddenly she had an idea. "Looks like will need to raise the stakes!" Jaune suddenly looked around for Bianca, but couldn't see anything, it was just too dark.

"Wait! Bianca! What do you mean by 'raise the stakes'?" He got no response from her, he stood there for a few minutes, then heard a sound that made his blood freeze, a sword being unleashed from its scabbard. Jaune felt his heart rate go up a few ticks, but then rationalized the situation, "Ha ha, very funny Bianca." Jaune said, he waited for a reply.

What he got was a sharp pain to the back of his leg. Jaune grunted in pain, and then felt around for to figure out what happened. His hand came up without any wet telltale signs of blood, but he did feel the stinging mark from whatever blade Jaune had been holding. A scratch, Bianca was cutting him.

"Oh, come on! Knock it off!" Jaune cried out, instead Jaune felt a searing pain on the back of his neck and on the back of his hand. She wasn't going to let up, Jaune stumbled around looking for the exit, he ended up tripping over something. He felt around in the darkness and grabbed something wooden, it was his practice sword. He quickly grabbed it, he wasn't getting out of here unless he either got good or got killed…or at least badly scratched up.

He rose and closed his eyes, he felt his aura beginning to kicked in, a pleasant sensation in the midst of stinging pain, as it worked to cover his wounds. His anger flared as he felt another annoying pain, this time on his butt.

 _Turn on the lights and we'll see who would be getting in the pot shots. As it stands the only thing I can see is that d_ amn _cande-…_

Jaune froze…

His eyes were closed, immediately the light seemed to wink out. He then let out a grunt as he felt a firm kick to his gut. He focused on the sensation of his aura and sure enough, a candle seemed to appear out of the darkness, coming closer to him at a brisk pace. He quickly got into stance, in line with the flame, the flame stopped, it then walked left. Jaune followed it and the flame started to move faster around the room. It suddenly surged forward, causing Jaune to jump back into a more defensive stance Pyrrha had shown him.

The flame froze at his movements, "Not bad blondie, not bad at all." Bianca said with admiration, "You're now a novice at aura manipulation." Jaune opened his eyes at her footsteps and winced at the sudden brightness of a strong flashlight. The two then walked back into the warm light of the library.

"Dinner will be ready shortly." Bianca stated, walking over and taking another book of the shelf and then thumbing through the pages until she came to the desired chapter.

"What's on the menu?" Jaune said enthusiastically, they had skipped breakfast, and had begun to practice visualizing aura. He sat down at the kitchen table and watched as Bianca grabbed a few things down from the cupboards above her.

"Depends, do you like portabella mushrooms and wild berries?" Bianca said in a hopeful voice, her hopes were dashed by Jaunes disgusted expression. "Hey, cheer up, I've got a few tricks to help them be pleasing to the palate." She said optimistically, "In the mean time I want you to read up on this." She then handed on the book over as Jaune looked at it and began to try and translate it.

He looked at the title, " _Vim Vi..._ what does it mean?" He began to fall back on his lessons, "Well for starters, _Vim_ stands for energy and basically aura. _Vi_ on the other hand…it means…it means…" Jaune found himself stumped, he couldn't remember the word coming up in their lessons last night.

"It means force," Bianca interjected, "the title meaningfully translates into aura force." Jaune looked up from the book at her quizzically. "It shows you how to turn your aura into a force."

"So, like a shockwave?" Jaune asked, getting a nod from Bianca.

"In a crude way, yes." She answered, "You will be able to send enemies, objects, and Grimm flying. Grimm, who have no aura, can be ripped to shreds if the force is strong enough and the Grimm is weak enough." She finished and pulled a tray out of the oven.

She turned to see Jaune looking at her, awestruck for the first time. "That's amazing! Why don't they teach this at Beacon!" Bianca flinched at his words before she continued to pour some water into wooden cups and put some mushrooms and blueberries onto their plates. Jaune would have missed it had he not been paying attention to her, she quickly changed the subject.

"Those people you fought yesterday, who were they?" Bianca asked casually, getting a surprised stare from Jaune, who stopped eating his surprisingly good meal, either that or he was to hungry to care how it tasted.

"The White Fang?" Jaune asked in a stunned whisper. Bianca nodded as she ate, looking at him as she ate.

"They are a terrorist organization; they fight to free faunus and bring them 'equality' by any means necessary." Jaune said, receiving a nod from Bianca. "A friend of mine used to be a member, but she left after the group became violent."

"So they used to be pacifist?" Bianca inquired, Jaune nodded.

"That's about all I know; I didn't know much about them until I came to Beacon and even then I don't know much." Jaune admitted, he really didn't know much about the world outside his farm before he attended beacon. As a matter of fact, there were a _lot_ of things his family had omitted before Jaune attended combat school. He put that thought away for a later time.

"I was beginning to sense a trend, what with the groups that kept coming in being entirely made of faunus. They went around and found the groups of bandits who used this city as their base, rounded them up and… _dealt with them._ " Bianca sad, absently stabbing at her food. She then leaned over to where Jaune was attempting to read the chapter, she pointed at a strange diagram. "This is an important part right here. Depending on how you allow your aura to flow it can either be a shock-wave from your body or into a wave that can come out of your sword which can act as a focal point for your aura."

She then got up and walked out of the room for a few seconds, she came back holding a box. "Speaking of, I have a gift for you." She then laid the box on the table, Jaune opened it and pulled out a massive sword, it had more weight to it and was much bigger than his original sword. It had gold edge with a pale blue center, the hilt was plain, but had a nice grip which felt good in Jaunes hands.

"It's a great sword, it doesn't really suit me, but in your hands it might be of better use, certainly more than being stuck in storage." Bianca said, happy at the sight of Jaunes awe and wonder as he gave it test swing, nearly taking out a small table with some picture on it. " _Not in here!"_ She hissed, Jaune then quickly set it back on the kitchen table.

"Thank you," Jaune said sincerely, receiving a wary look from Bianca, as she walked over to where he was. Jaune let out a yawn and sat down, the day had really worked on him.

"Go get some sleep, tomorrow we will be taking a little trip." Bianca said motioning to the area, where Jaune had been staying. Jaune got up and quickly went over to a place where Jaune was able to use a tooth brush he had found in his pack and washed his face in a small basin Bianca had given him. He then climbed in the bed and closed his eyes, the only light coming from the embers in the stove in the other room. He had only had his eyes closed for a minute before feeling a sudden movement at the foot of his bed which quickly worked its way up. Jaunes eyes snapped open and he looked over to find Bianca snuggling next to him, looking at him with her deep blue eyes.

"Hold me…" She said.

" _What_?" Jaune said in a surprised whisper, he felt his heart beginning to skip.

"You heard me… _hold…me._ " She then grabbed his hand and turned over, putting her back to him. Jaune didn't know how to respond, he wrapped his arm over her, eliciting a hum of satisfaction from Bianca.

" _Why?"_ Jaune whined, Bianca flipped around and glared at him.

"When _you_ spend several years alone without a man or woman in sight and spend every night surrounded by Grimm and murderous thieves, then _you_ can be the judge of the situation. Until then, shut it, don't act like you don't like it." She said and then twisted back around and got comfy, Jaune could only lay there. He had two reasons not to respond. One, he didn't want to get on Biancas' bad side and then _go to sleep_ next to her. Two, truthfully…he was enjoying himself just a bit… a _tiny_ bit.

He decided to get comfy and pulled her closer, he was freezing. Bianca moaned in satisfaction causing Jaune to freeze and decide to try and get some sleep. He didn't have any full dreams, but flashes of the White Fang being hot on his trail, then Grimm, then rats…he hated rats.

…

When he woke up he was feeling refreshed he tried to fumble around, but felt a weight on his chest. He looked up on his chest, he looked up to find red hair blocking his sight, Bianca had somehow climbed on top of him some time in the night. He tried to move, but couldn't.

"I guess your awake," Bianca said sleepily, eyes closed.

"Can you let me up?" Jaune pleaded.

"No," Bianca pouted, for an older lady she could act very childish. Jaune decided to play a new tactic, he wrapped his arms around her, causing her eyes to shoot open. He then rolled over so that she was underneath him, he ended up straddled her waist.

"Shall I let _you_ up?" Jaune said haughtily, Bianca responded by rolling her eyes throwing her hands back in surrender.

"So confident, aggressive, hmm…I guess you're becoming more of a hunter, now, _claim your_ _spoils._ " She said in a sultry voice, putting a finger to her mouth and a hand to grip Jaunes belt. The blonde was taken aback; he hadn't thought of what to do if this happened. He looked at her, she was wearing a baggy shirt and some short night shorts. Jaune went very red, not because of the buxom red head beneath him, but due to a new kind of hunger that overcame his feelings. He hated to admit, but he was beginning to get lonely himself and having her by his side in this unfamiliar and potentially deadly area had been nice. He would have been dead without her.

Before he could decide what to do with how he was feeling, Bianca pushed him off and got up. She walked over to the entrance and then closed the blind. "We will be going to a special place for your training today, I'd suggest a change of clothes. Jaune stood up and then grabbed a set of clothes from his pack, he switched into his regular attire and grabbed the great sword and his shield he put his clothes into a sling-over and started to walk to the entrance.

" _Don't come in here!"_ Bianca hissed, " _I'm trying to get dressed!"_ Jaune then paused and walked around the room. He looked on the cabinet and picked up a picture. There was four people in frame laughing, they were all dressed in weird looking armor with wide should guards, small fins stuck out from the forearm and the head gear had a crazy plume of feathers that matched the color of the armor. The chest armor had a type of animal emblazoned on the breastplate.

In total, they all looked weird but matching, Jaune immediately recognized one of the girls as Bianca she was wrapped around a blonde man with a mullet and goatee, he had dark blue armor and an eagle on his armor. Her armor was black with gold trim and a javelin in her hand, a lion emblazoned her breastplate. The other man had a dark complexion with green armor and a bull symbol the other was a woman had a lighter complexion and the symbol of a bear.

Jaune stared at the people in the image before noticing a wooden post with some writing on it at their feet. "Team V.A.L.R.?"

"Team Valor, that's what we called ourselves, Valhart, myself, Lidiya, and Ronsion. Those were the glory days." Bianca had walked in, wearing armor like the one in the photo, though it looked less outrageous, without the shoulder guards and such.

"You had quiet the fashion design." Jaune said casually, getting a playful _hey_ and punch in the arm. "We were the coolest kids at the academy I'll have you know. That was quiet the trend back then, and we were awesome!" Bianca said proudly, her hands on her hips proudly. Jaune pointed at the blonde she was wrapped around.

"Who's he?" He asked, Bianca looked at the photo with longing.

"That is Jet Valhart, but everyone called him Val…he was… a good friend." Bianca, her eyes beginning to swim with emotion, she suddenly snapped back and put the photo down. "It's time to go." She then briskly walked out of the room, Jaune looked at the photo and then quickly jogged to catch up with her.

…

"Here we are," Bianca said, she was carrying a large backpack on her shoulder as they came up to a wall in the cave with no real sign of exit or entry. She then pulled a lever on the side of the wall. The wall went down and locked into place a foot above the floor of the cave, several walls behind that one did the same at higher and higher intervals until a stairway to the surface formed before their eyes.

"Cool!" Jaune exclaimed, "it's like a secret entrance!"

"It _is_ a secret entrance, blondie." Bianca said, rolling her eyes as she walked up the stairs. "In a world of these White Fang people and Grimm, it pays to have a front door that hides itself." They came out of the cave and Jaune winced at the cold. They were on a hill, it's crown surrounded by a small garden wall with several old pillars inside that were in varying states of decay, snow was everywhere and the sky was covered in dark grey clouds which hung gloomily in the air. Bianca walked over to small pedestal that looked like it used to hold a pillar, she stepped on it and on que the stairway ascended and the entrance was sealed back up. .

"Onward we go, by the way, take this." Bianca said,She gave him a coat she had carried out with her, he graciously took it. Bianca handed Jaune her backpack, he let out a grunt as he threw it onto his shoulders, it was heavier than Bianca had let on.

"How can you carry this so easily?" Jaune asked, he looked over at her pleadingly. "Please tell me it's is a trick with aura." Bianca shook her head though.

"Nope, just good old fashioned body building." She said, flexing her muscles. "However, aura can be used to lengthen your stamina, but it drains your aura quickly so it isn't the wisest strategy."

They began to walk out of the garden, Jaune saw Kairos off to his left with a mountain range blocking his view to the east, Jaunes eyes searched over the mountain. There was black stone, wisps of clouds and fog, white powdery snow and…

"Beacon?" Jaune asked pointing to the familiar building that rested at the end of the valley. It was black instead of white, but similar in almost every other feature he could see from where he was.

"No," Bianca said with a faint smile. "I can see the similarities, but no, the people of Kairos called it ' _Ante'_ " She said as they walked, "Our team spent many a semester and shenanigans through those halls." She said, with a smile crossing her face.

"What happened to this place? It looks like it could face anything." Jaune thought aloud, he then accidentally bumped into Bianca who had stopped dead in her tracks. She turned and faced him with a face that held, bitterness and utter sorrow.

" _Everything_ …that's what happened." Bianca said, she then turned and continued walking down a path, neither of them spoke for at least an hour. Finally, they came to an alcove by a cliff, a small pond being feed by a waterfall from the mountain was frozen solid. The waterfall itself was frozen into massive icicle, the city was out of sight. The path reached an arch and then continued down the cliff in a long sloping path.

"This is the perfect place to practice " _vim_ _vi_ ", although most of us know it by another name." Bianca said while taking in the view.

"What's that?" Jaune asked, folding his arms into his armpits to keep them warm.

Bianca didn't respond instead she focused in on a small snow bank near her, she lifted her hand towards it.

 _TWIP! THWISH!_

A light shot down Bianca's hand and exploded into the snow bank in a muffled pop, sending snow and steam flying.

" _Animam percusserit_ , Soul Strike" Bianca said, turning to a star struck Jaune. "That is the name hunters gave it."

"Ok, how do I do it!" Jaune breathed, a few hours later, Jaune was still trying to figure that out. His hands were red and raw, and his muscles were aching and cramping from the cold and exhaustion. Once again, Bianca was looking at him with folded arms, but this time she wasn't _as_ annoyed.

"You've got to let your energy build up and then focus and project it outward in a focused manner." Bianca coached, she let out a sigh as Jaune made a very strained focus before slipping and falling on the ice. She walked over to him, Jaune looked up at her as he laid on the ice.

"Hello…" Jaune said tiredly, Bianca pulled him to his feet and then looked at the darkening sky.

"It's time to head in, you do _not_ want to be caught out here at night." Bianca said, she then looked over at the deserted school. "You've got a way to go before we can try to retrieve the artifact. The Nevermores and Ursa use the school as a den from the elements and are attracted to its power. We will need to be lightning quick, in and out and you will need to be on your way to beacon."

Jaune looked at her and then back at the school, "You mean the artifact has been over there this whole time!" Bianca nodded, "then what the heck are the white fang doing searching through the library!" Bianca let out a chuckle.

"That was the last curators hiding spot," Bianca said, Jaune gave her a look. She let out a flustered sigh and went on. "There has been a line of people chosen to watch over it ever since the color war. When the torch is passed, the new watcher takes it from its hiding spot and then puts it in a new one. The last man, he was a sweet old man, hid it in the library. I took it, hid it in the academy and then flooded the library so that if word got out, whoever went seeking it would be chasing a false flag."

"How did you get the Grimm in there?" Jaune asked.

"There are Grimm in the library?" Bianca said in surprise.

"Forget it," Jaune said, wanting to put those memories behind him, the woman's scream still haunting his memories. "If the artifact is in the academy, why don't we go get it now?" Jaune said, changing the subject. Bianca stood up and simply pointed to the smoothly rolling clouds down in the valley between them and the academy.

"That may not look like much, but I assure you that is a raging blizzard. We wouldn't make it half way before getting frozen stiff. We still have a week and a half before it relents, best to my prediction from past blizzards." Bianca said in a matter-of-fact tone, Jaune didn't doubt her.

They stood around, watching the clouds roll beneath them before walking up the path to the garden wall. As they came over the hill Jaune looked down into the city. Jaune saw something shiny gleaming down near entrance, he then pulled out some binoculars from his sling pack.

"Uh-Oh" Jaune said while looking out, Bianca walked over and grabbed them and looked out.

"What are you Uh-ohing , Oh!...Well that's new." Bianca said looking down, the white fang had brought in some new kind of machine was in front of the white fang headquarters, and with it, a _lot_ of new henchmen. "Well then," Bianca said enthusiastically, "let's go check it out!" With that she began to jog down the hill.

"Wait, what!" Jaune called, but it was too late. "Well… _shit_ "


	9. Chapter 9

The debris surrounding the library had been cleared away, new construction had quickly began to intermingle with the old. The excavation of the artifact was well underway, the White Fang had increased the guards and patrols, all were on alert for the hunter.

"( _Chump)…_ So it would seem…( _Crunch)…_ that the white fang have setup some kind of machine to get the water out. ( _Gulp)…_ So let's go destroy it." Bianca said, her mouth half full with some berries and nuts that she had brought along for training.

"Why? And could you please swallow before answering?" Jaune said in a stern whisper, Bianca looked over at him with an innocent expression before swallowing and grabbing a drink from her canteen.

"We have to keep up the illusion," she said with a quaint smile. "If they drain it and find nothing they will begin to spread out." She then pointed her thumb to the building and drew it to the location of the machine with a wicked grin, "and I know just how to take it down."

An hour later it should have been twilight, but Jaune couldn't tell. As a matter of fact Jaune could barely see anything as they walked _under_ the city.

"How are these tunnels not flooded yet the city above is half under?" Jaune asked, Bianca was in the lead with a torch.

"The surface is flooded because these sewers have been sealed, they turned into convenient passages to avoid the bandits in this city. You know before the White Fang…" She then slid her finger across her throat, making a gacking noise.

"You know, you are just a ray of sunlight." Jaune said dryly.

"I know, don't you just love it?" She replied sarcastically, turning to Jaune, who gave her a grin. She turned away with a smile and they continued down the tunnels. They continued a way before freezing at the sound of a loud humming noise, they had arrived beneath the machine.

"Ha, well look at that… perfect." Bianca said with a laugh, she walked into an area where the tunnel opened into a large pit, the path continued on across a walkway before coming to an abrupt end against a brick wall. At the corners of the entrances were some old mortar pillars that looked like they were ready to crumble at any moment. Beneath walkway was what Jaune could only describe as the abyss. A darkness that continued down for as far as he could see, a low roar as a slight breeze went through.

Bianca let out a small chuckle before turning to Jaune. "This will be easy, but I need you to stand aside, unless you want to get buried." Jaune obliged and Bianca closed her eyes and face went calm, she began to glow softly, her aura was building. Her eyes opened, her blue iris's burning with energy she lifted both hands and spread out her palms. A smile suddenly cracked her calm features, "boom" she said softly and flicked her palms.

THWIIISSSSSHHH! KA-BOOM!

A wave of dark energy with a golden outline exploded forth, the pillars dissolved like they were made of sand, with a flash of light the ceiling above exploded leaving huge cracks and crumbling mortar falling into the dark pit below. The light dissipated and Bianca began to fall, but Jaune caught her. "Looks like I might have under preformed, how shameful." She said looking up at the ceiling, before Jaune could speak a loud groan resonated from the ceiling above. Jaune instinctively grabbed Bianca and pulled themselves back further into the tunnel, immediately the ceiling fell through. A metallic screech pierced the air as the metal machine fell through and down into the darkness below.

"B…Bulls…eye" Bianca said weakly before passing into unconsciousness. Jaune quickly pulled Bianca's arm over his shoulder and put her on his back, she had clearly used a _lot_ of aura to be feeling this weak. Jaune slowly walked her back down the tunnel, he heard voices shouting above and the hurried rush of footsteps. Eventually, Jaune had reached the point they entered from, an old manhole cover that was slightly raised above the water to keep it out and make a passerby think it was submerged.

Jaune climbed up slowly with Bianca clinging to his back, it was nighttime and the full moon hung low in the sky. He stood and pushed the cover back over the hole, before he began to jog back to their base. He began to walk towards a dilapidated building to get to the rooftops when he heard a voice shout. He bolted inside with Bianca asleep on his back, she was out cold and defenseless against attack. He found the stairwell and began to ascend, he heard the entrance he had come through explode open. He found the door to the roof and used his great sword to pyre it open from the rusted frame, He ran to the edge of the building and began to search for a way down onto the next building.

"Here they are!" Someone shouted, Jaune turned to see a White Fang Guard readying his gun to fire.

"Hold!" Someone shouted from behind, the guard stepped to the side, Bonnie stepped forward. She looked at the guard with a polite smile. "Go get the others. By time you get back, I will have handled the situation and we can have them taken to Adam." The guard looked unsure, the rabbit faunas laid her hand gently on his forearm, "don't worry! He can't even fight and I'm itching to release some _unhealthy_ feelings out." The guard nodded and ran back down the stairs, she watched him go before turning to Jaune, a twisted smile on her face. " _Finally_ , _I get to deal with you_ , Kara is going to _love_ me for this!" She then leapt at Jaune, who rose his shield to meet her, Jaune then felt a stinging sensation just below his ribs. Jaune reached down and felt around, his shirt was ripped but his aura had blocked any actual damage.

"Oh darn! Your still shielded!" Bonnie said with disappointment, she let out a small sighing and then beamed out a smile somehow more unnerving than the one before. "Oh well! It's not going to be that way for long!" She said throwing up her hands, it was then Jaune saw what cut him. Her hands were covered in gauntlets, each finger having a razor-sharp tip, it looked like a nasty piece of work.

She ran at him again, but this time Jaune was prepared. He rolled at her feet, catching her off guard at the sudden movement, she fell over him. Jaune, flipped up and immediately went to swing with his sword, but found himself thrusting at nothing. Jaune felt his neck hairs stand up on end as his gut shot up into his throat, on instinct, he flung himself forward, bringing his shield up whilst twisting around wildly.

SCREECH!

Steel claws met shield, leaving scratch marks across his family crest. Jaune went down to his knees gritting his teeth, he was fuming and used it to help focus. He stood up and walked in a circle with her, the fight was on. Jaune spent a few seconds strategizing, he guessed he had a minute or two before reinforcements arrived. He decided he needed to bait Bonnie and see if she had any surprises in store for him, he feigned a lunge forward and an exaggerated swipe.

The great sword felt foreign in his hands, he wasn't used to the weight and the balance kept throwing his reaction off, it was going to be a dangerous game. His training with Pyrrha kept him one step ahead of the murderous opponent, he held the blade loosely as he swung, only gripping it firmly as he began to make contact.

Unfortunately, Bonnie new how to deal with his basic tricks very quickly, dodging and swerving to avoid his swings. Jaune found himself growing tired, the blade was a beast to try and stop and took even more energy to try and counter Bonnie's strikes. It wasn't long before Jaune found himself on the defensive. He tried to bait her out one last time, making a large arc forward his sword. It smashed into the ground with a dull _THUD_ _,_ that was when Bonnie made her move.

She crouched low and went to slice at Jaunes exposed stomach, his training with Pyrrha saved him as he flipped over her avoiding the claws. Unfortunately, that was where her training ended as Jaune failed to stick the landing and ended up landing on his back, his sword spinning out of his hand.

Jaune knew he had screwed up big time, she would be on top of him, ripping him to shreds within a moment. He looked up and saw her mid-leap towards him a look of bloodlust painted on her face with her arms out stretched, Jaune threw his hand forward, "NO!"

THWIP! SHOOM!

A golden ray of light burst forth from Jaunes hands, Bonnie didn't even have time to react before it slammed into her chest. The force from the blast sent her flying from the roof to the ground below.

SMASH!

Jaune crawled over to see the rabbit faunas crumpled on top of an old pile of debris, she had only just missed the pavement, Jaune noticed something interesting. A small flicker of pink flowed around her before winking out, it had taken all her aura to handle the fall. Jaune stood up, immediately feeling light headed, before shaking his head and walking over to Bianca.

"So you did it, I'm impressed." Bianca said softly, she then weakly stood up before resting on Jaune.

"You've been awake this whole time!" Jaune said shocked and annoyed, but Bianca shook her head.

" Just in time to see you send that bunny bitch flying." She said with a chuckle, "Now you have done something impressive, it usually takes someone who is learning this stuff at least a month before they can do something like that." She then walked over to the edge of the roof on her own, her aura returning quickly now.

She jumped off the roof they were on to the adjacent one, Jaune followed suit, though he was tired and tripped over his own feet and landed on his face, receiving a quiet 'oh' from Bianca, he rubbed his nose and stood up. They began to walk across when they heard a bloodcurdling scream from the street below.

Jaune made the mistake of looking back, Kara was clutching Bonnie a look of absolute horror in her face. "WHO LEFT HER?!" She demanded, one of the guards stepped back, he tried to explain.

"She told me to come get you!" He stammered, Kara whipped out her weapon. "W-wait, wait, wait!"

SHLOCK!

The White Fang lackey clutched at his throat, blood pouring out, only able let out a gurgle as he slowly crumpled to the ground. Kara picked up Bonnie and began walking back toward the base, careful of where she stepped as the rabbit faunas laid motionless in her arms.

"Geez, you really did a number on her. Come on, this way." Bianca said, she had been crouching next to Jaune to view the scene. She crawled over to the other side of the roof and jumped down onto a lower building, Jaune joined her. Together, they walked across the buildings until they found themselves crossing under the shadow of the center building.

"The Black Thorn," Jaune said under his breath, Bianca looked at the building and scowled before spitting on the ground and began to stomp forward, but Jaune caught her arm. "Ok, spill." Jaune said plainly, Bianca blinked in confusion. "What happened here? Every time, I bring up this city and _ante_ you get all withdrawn and vague about this place. Before, I left I was told this city fell due to corruption and Grimm. However, I get the feeling that isn't all there is to it, so answer me. _What the hell happened here?_ " Jaune threw his hands up, but Bianca merely lowered her head, shrugged off Jaunes arm and began to keep on walking.

"Follow me and you'll know." That was all she said before jumping off and began to jog off to the north, Jaune followed keeping right behind her.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: We all fall down…

They went from rooftop to rooftop watching for the light of patrols and faunus, not that Jaune was worried about having to actually see them anymore. Jaune couldn't explain it, but it felt like the more he used his aura in unique ways the more his sensitivity grew of aura. Not just his own, but of others, where they were and to an extent who they were.

They continued their trek for what seemed to be a half hour, the moon had risen high into the sky by time Bianca stopped. Jaune walked up to her and looked around, they had made it to the northern most part at the city. This was made apparent by the end of the building and then, after 50 yards of flat stone, were sheer cliffs that rose up and began to shape into the side of the mountains. Jaune then looked at the rock face and notice that there was a hole at the base of the, a cavern. Bianca looked around and then looked at Jaune, "Get ready to run." Her tone made it evident, she did _not_ want to be here. They both dashed for the entrance and then slide into the mouth of the cavern. When Jaune stood up, he let out a gasp of wonder.

Dust, lots of it, lit up the cave. Every inch of the cave was surrounded in an array of colors by the dust, it was a beautiful site. "What?…Why?…Bianca, what is this place?" Jaune asked in wonder, Bianca didn't immediately respond instead she looked at the cave with mild disgust.

Bianca threw up her hands at the crystals, "This what caused, the downfall of Kairos." She said sadly and began walking further in the cave. She then went on, "Greed and pride are terrible things Jaune, but there is two things that can be worse."

Jaune looked at her curiously, "What's that?"

"Good intentions and people who think with their heart." Bianca said, she then sat down on a rock and motioned for Jaune to join her. "Let me tell you a story, I've been wishing to forget for a long time…"

She began, "When the Color war ended, people wanted to start anew. So, in a rare display of cooperation between man and faunus, rich and poor, proud and meek, something wonderful was created. A city on a hill, between the mountains of Vale, able to outshine even the proudest city in all of Remnant. We were even haughty enough to begin building a new hunter academy, such we believed would even surpass Beacon. Then, we discovered dust, estimates began to show we might be sitting on some of the biggest dust deposits ever seen before, Vacuo's dust records of the past were easily shattered. We took it as a sign we were destined for something greater, but greed began to overtake the wealthiest and industrial individuals of the city. Luckily, before they could overtake the city and do with the dust as they wished, a band of hunters from the academy showed up and were able to stop him."

Her face began to darken, "Afterwards, the city became controlled by the council, everyone held a say in the matter. Everyone looked after each other, when I was a girl it was like a dream. Like a dream though it began to shift into a nightmare, as I was attending the academy in my teen years, the voting and voters became more split and factions began to form. Storm clouds began to brew and by time I was in my final year everything began to crumble, it was all over one thing."

She then laughed a bitter laugh, "I still will never forget it."

"What to do with the cities artifacts?" She asked in a mocking tone, she then shook her face tears streaming down it.

"The representatives went into the black thorn and began to debate, tensions were so high people thought an all-out civil war would begin. Are team was shattered at this point, everyone in the ante who was wise had left years before, but we thought…. Team Valor…." Bianca froze, she dropped to her knees and began to sob. Jaune comforted her for a few minutes, she regained her composure and then stood up.

"The team had broken up, each had gone to the three major factors, I had forsaken the whole matter and was gathering my things to leave with a group who had written the city off as lost…then the fighting started. I don't know who started what, but by time I got to the city it was hell. Hunters who had chosen sides begun attacking each other, the civilians all gathered out, looting, fighting, killing."

"It was a riot." Jaune said plainly, but Bianca laughed and shook her head.

"You're forgetting something, we knew how to manipulate aura. The amount of destruction caused by the hunters…two of the factions had just surrendered when we heard it…the sound… _my god the sound_." Bianca said, her face gaunt with fear and emotionless, her eyes were wide. Jaune wondered what she meant, but she explained with only four words, "the Grimm had arrived. Everyone who had fought was too tired to raise a single blade in defense. Only I remained, but …but when they needed me…" Her eyes began to fill with tears. "I ran!" She cried, a horrible moan escaped her lips, "All I cared about Valhart, he had been leading the victorious party, I figured he would be able to help, or we could run, or…" She buried her hand into her head.

"I went into the capital building looking for Valhart…he…he." Her eyes went wide with horror, "…So drunk with power…he was delusional and thought he was going to save the world…I…I…I had to…stop him…he had the eye and was going to use it to…." She sounded more like she was trying to reassure herself than Jaune.

Her face went blank and then dark with pain, "What happened?" Jaune dared to ask, Bianca looked up, her pained expression replaced with a dark look.

"I ran my husband through with my spear…" Bianca stated in monotone, there was silence for a few seconds as her words hung in the air. She then let out a bitter laugh and continued. "I then helped the survivors of the group I was in get out of the city, fought the Grimm and Bandits that came after us, got to Vale…and I did it all at fifteen weeks pregnant." That caused Jaune to look at her in astonishment.

"You have a child!?" Jaune said with amazement, Bianca looked at him with pain, making Jaune instantly regret his words.

"No," Bianca said, her face changing once more, now filled with compromise. "I gave her away… my baby girl with the fiery hair, damn did she kick in those last months!" She said with a slight smile at a rare happy memory, but it quickly faded. "I was too rough, to bitter, to …broken, she deserved better than that…I signed off the paper work and watched her get taken out of my life." Tears began to form once more in her eyes, "Some nights I lay awake and think of her…what she probably thinks of me… _sigh_ " She then recomposed her thoughts and continued on about the city. "Afterwards the Grimm kept flooding into the city, picking off the last faction. It was poetic justice truthfully, but it wasn't pleasant news, the wounded began to pour into Vale. Some broken physically, but all were broken spiritually and mentally. Very few ever went back, mostly to try and find the eye, when it was discovered it was kept hidden and its knowledge was left to very few. Afterwards, I taught a few years at beacon as the combat instructor before Ozpin gave me this mission."

Jaunes thoughts stirred, but a more immediate question took the lead. "What happened to your team?" He questioned, Bianca merely pointed behind him. Jaune turned to see three small, rectangular, marble slabs.

Bianca looked over at them, "Wasn't no way in hell I was going to leave them outside to the mercy of the Grimm." She then stood up and began to walk to the entrance, "Come on, this place brings back some bad memories. No use in reliving the past, best we can do is hope for a better future." Jaune got up and followed her, as they were walking up the mountainside back to their hideout Jaune decided to be bold. He grabbed her and pulled her close to him, she gave into it and rested her head on his shoulder, as they got to the entrance she stood on the platform and they both walked down into the caves. The entrance covered itself back up and Jaune found himself letting out a breath of relief, safe…for now.

…

After a few hours Bianca was drinking an herbal tea, meanwhile Jaune looked over a book about ways to use dust with his sword and shield. "This is amazing," he said, "Glynda never instructed us in this kind of combat."

Bianca nearly choked on her drink.

"Glynda! As in Glynda Goodwitch by any chance?" Bianca said in amazement, Jaune nodded and Bianca fell out of her chair, rolling with laughter. "Oh my God! Glynda Goodwitch is the combat instructor!? HAHAHAHA…Oh man that is…. that is unexpected." She then got up and sat back down in her chair, she noticed Jaune's confused and surprised expression. "What is she like?" Bianca asked, Jaune thought about it for a few seconds.

"Stern, By-the-book…a bit frigid as an instructor, she's the one who said I didn't have a chance." Jaune remarked, remembering his cold encounter with her at the start of this mission. Bianca looked at him with surprise.

"She thinks she's in a position to judge who has combat potential? That's rich…" She snorted, Jaune looked at her even more confused than before. Bianca explained, "She was _my_ student, and let me tell you. There wasn't much there to go by." She then broke down into laughter, "Ms. Perfect sure did make an ass of herself that one time…my god she never escaped her nickname afterwards…Glynda _Goodbody_."

"Huh?" Jaune looked over at her, she laughed and looked down a bit, debating if should tell, she decided to spill.

"She came from a pretty strong family of hunters, a legacy child. She thought she was all high and mighty compared to her peers. She wouldn't even let her partner join her in her first day of combat class, just took on a team, two to one. The pair of students she fought against…what were their names?" Bianca pondered for a bit and then remembered, "Oh yes! Summer Rose and Qrow Brandwen, my two favorites!"

She then had a wide smile as she recounted her story, "those two worked off each other so well, it was just magical, they easily took her out. Poor Glynda, the girl just couldn't admit defeat, she used a bit too much energy and wasn't focused and well..." She threw her hands up in the air, trying to hold back from laughing "there was a pretty good sized explosion, knocked us all back, and when the smoke cleared there stood Goodwitch… _stark naked_."

Bianca gave in to laughter as Jaunes eyes went so wide she thought they were going to pop out of his head, she continued. "Poor, poor girl, she didn't live that one down for the rest of the semester. Every time she walked down the hall, someone would whistle and she'd go bright red. It did humble her and make her more of a team player though, so I guess it worked out for something." Bianca said, he decided to let it rest. Jaune sat with his face in his arms, heaving with laughter himself.

After a while, they hopped into the bed together and got cozy. For the first time since Jaune started this mission, his dreams were peaceful.

...


	11. Chapter 11

Over the next few days Bianca began to ramp up the training, Jaune. He figured out, with some difficulty, how to focus his aura into folds.

"It makes plates which can help deflect projectiles and sword swings better and at less expense to your aura." Bianca explained, from there the training shifted into a more combative role as Bianca helped refine his skill with a great sword. "It's not just hack and slash like one might think, there is a rhythm and a flow to your swings, each one lending itself to the next." Jaune also noticed his sensitivity to aura began to become more defined. In pitch darkness Bianca's aura was less like a flame and was now beginning to have a more defined outline, even her weapon was now visible.

With less than two days before the blizzard cleared, Bianca and Jaune found themselves in the same cave where the training began. "Now I think you're ready for a more advanced technique…" Bianca said, she seemed a little restless though.

"Why are you nervous?" Jaune asked taking notice of how she was acting. "This is just like anything else I've learned this past week, right?"

"No," Bianca said in a cautious voice, "this is where things can get dangerous." She then held her hands together over her head and began to radiate a black energy once more, however this time the energy condensed and began to crawl up her hands, it formed into a black ball of energy. She closed her eyes and concentrated, her eyes snapped open and she threw the energy forward.

 _THWISH! ROOAAARRR!_

Jaune jumped back in shock and went into a defensive stance with his great sword, a _freaking_ lion had materialized from the energy she has thrown. It was solid black, like Bianca's aura, and its fur crackled with energy. It looked around, immediately eyeing Jaune, it went into a crouch and slowly moved forward.

"O-o-oh no! Easy k-kitty, go-good kitty!" Jaune stammered out, the lion merely let out a deep throated growl and continued to advance. Jaune readied himself for a swing, he'd only get one shot. Before he could move though the lion folded out its ears and let out a moan. Jaune looked at it as it turned to face Bianca, he could then see why. Bianca was giving it a cold stare and seemed to will it to come over to her. It did and then laid down in a snooty manner, licking it chops and mildly surveying the room for anything of interest.

Jaune looked over at Bianca who had opened her eyes, but seemed very tired, she walked over to him and rested up against him. She was panting a bit, like she had ran in a fifty yard sprint. "That is a very heavy risk and reward technique." She said to Jaune as she watched the lion with boredom, though she smiled at the stunned look in Jaunes eyes.

" _It's a spirit animal!"_ Jaune said in amazement, upon closer examination the lion was beginning to seem a bit translucent. "

"I swear everyone who learns this devolves into a child of wonder when they see this technique preformed." Bianca said while chuckling, "although you aren't too far from the truth, it's known as an aura manifestation. It uses all of your aura, but is very tough and able to provide a distraction amongst other things if you need an escape. The down side is that you have to have great focus to will the creature to do as you wish, if you lose control, even for a moment…" Bianca and Jaune both stared at the bored lion as it rolled on its belly, as if it expected a belly rub.

"It's the same animal from the one on your armor," Jaune said in realization.

"How very observant of you," Bianca noted.

"Will mine be a lion?" Jaune asked in an excited tone, his hope was put on ice though.

"Hard to say," Bianca said, looking Jaune over. "The type of animal is usually representative of the person's soul." They both turned as the lion let out a slight grunt and then faded from existence, Bianca let out a light sigh of relief as she felt her aura return to her.

Bianca decided that was enough training for today and they walked into the kitchen for some food.

…

The last day of training started mundanely enough, Jaune read through some of the books given to him in a less butchered manner than when he first began. He lowered his book and looked around, by tomorrow, he would be on his way back to Beacon. It felt surreal, he wanted to return to his team, but with Bianca…he was learning so much.

He packed together his things in his bag and threw it over his shoulder. Bianca walked over to him and handed him a small silver disk. "It is a copy of all the books, I want you to have it after you leave. I expect you to train just as hard then as you do now." Jaune smiled and put it into his bag. With that, he grabbed his sword, he had given it the name Nuit d'Orléans, and walked to the entrance. Bianca strolled up behind him and pulled the lever, "when we get to the path down into the valley we will have to be ready to run. There's no telling how many grimm are down there."

"What's the strategy when we get to the academy?" Jaune asked, he turned to face her as the stairs came down.

"Run in, run out, try not to get killed while doing it." Bianca said in matter-of-fact tone.

"Sounds like fun." Jaune noted.

"These kinds of missions always are." Bianca said.

"I think your mission just ended." A voice said above them, Jaune and Bianca looked up to see Kara standing over them with a fierce look, around five guards standing next to her. "And it's about to be your last…"


	12. Chapter 12

TWIP! SHOOM!...POW!...CLING! SNICK! AAIIEEE!

Jaune sent one of the guards flying into the cave wall with his great sword, he had augmented Nuit d'Orléans with his aura. The white fang acolyte was taken aback by the amount of force the blade imparted. As Jaune smashed her in the face, shattering her white mask, two more stepped forward. He quickly spun his sword over his head, the two jumped forward for the repost, but Jaune was ready. He brought the blade around faster than they anticipated, his larger blade meet theirs.

TING!

There blades broke, the broken blades falling to the floor with a harsh ' _clang!_ ' Jaune looked at them with a smile as there macho façade broke, they looked at their swords, at Jaune, then at each other. They quickly took off for the exit, the woman Jaune had sent into the wall getting up and following suit.

CLACK! TING! CLANG!

Jaune ran into the training room, Bianca had lured Kara and the other two guards to try and divide there numbers. He entered the room, the guards were unconscious on the ground, Bianca and Kara were locked in a heated struggle. Kara was wearing armor, her blade glowing with red dust. She and Bianca had cuts on their arms, each had been trying to repost one another. Jaune launched himself at the fight, catching Kara off guard, unfortunately his hand slipped on the hilt and he smashed her face with the face of his sword.

She stumbled backwards, blood oozing from her nose. She lowered her blade and it shifted into gun mode as she began to make a run for the exit. Bianca and Jaune followed her.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

Jaune easily dove out of the way of the first two and even deflected the last one with his blade, but Bianca took a glancing blow as she rolled into one of the aisles for cover. Jaune didn't notice though, as he smiled and triumphantly ran towards the exit, when he got to the entrance however he froze.

"Well, well, well…What do we have here?" Adam said, his arms crossed his chest with a hand on his sword. Dozens of guards also standing on the stairway, Jaune thought fast and pulled the lever on the side before running out. Instantly, the stairway began to ascend, pinning and crushing the guards on the stairway and blocking the ones out in the garden.

Jaune ran, spotting his bag he had dropped at the start of the fight, he grabbed it and saw Bianca jogging toward him, she noticed Adam walking into the room, "This way!" She called to Jaune, he followed her and ran into the kitchen. Bianca pulled out her spear.

TWIP! THOOM! CRASH!

She fired out a shock-wave at the door frame, causing the entrance to collapse. When the dust cleared, a pile of boulders filled the doorway completely blocking them from the murderous faunas.

"Great! Now we're trapped!" Jaune said in panic, "We aren't going to be able to escape! They will dig out the tunnel then kill us or they will just leave us in here to starve or go insane or…or-"

SMACK!

"Sorry, but I need you to focus Jaune." Bianca said sincerely, Jaune rubbed his face and nodded. "Besides, do you really think I would drag us in here without a plan?" She then walked over to the oven and grabbed a few of the dust crystals, she stored them into her throw bag, she then reached into the oven.

 _Click!_

Immediately, the back of the stove gave way to reveal a passage big enough to crawl through. Though it was completely devoid of light, cobwebs lightly dancing in the soft wind. Jaune looked at it, then at Bianca.

"Ladies first," Jaune chimed, Bianca rolled her eyes.

" _My hero,_ " she snorted, she then crawled into the oven. Jaune followed her and closed the door behind them. Jaune crawled on his hands and knees in pitch black for what felt like an eternity until he rammed into Bianca's butt. " _Umpf!"_

"Well… Jaune… as much as I like the idea, I don't think this is even close to the appropriate time." She said, Jaune didn't need to see her face to know she was smiling.

"Well you know what they say, 'No one wants to die a virgin.'" Jaune retorted in a seductive tone and capitalized on it by pinching her on the ass, earning a small squeal and soft kick in the face in response. Eventually, Jaune began to notice, not really a light, but a lessening of the darkness ahead. A dull blue light appeared in front of him and Bianca.

"Hang on a sec," Bianca said, she stuck her hand out.

TWIP! SHOOM!

The darkness was quickly dissolved by the silver light from Bianca's otherwise dark aura blast.

Suddenly, the dull blue light gave way to sunlight, Jaune and Bianca clambered out. Jaune realized they were at the pond where they had trained previously, A hole now in the frozen waterfall where they had climbed out. The academy was still partially obscured by a snowy mist, but the valley below visible, it was much deeper than he had previously thought, with a zig-zagging path that went to the bottom. A bridge crossed a swiftly moving stream, and then into a small structure at the foot of the adjacent cliff.

"Let's do this," Jaune said with determination.

Jaune turned to look up towards the garden wall, he quickly grabbed Bianca and tore off sown the path with reckless abandon. The white fang had found their cave and had been looking around, the mob of white masks searching over the hill side, some had begun to point out at the building across the divide. Some had taken off to report to Adam, others to rally the rest of the troops.

The race to the artifact was now on.

…

"This is much bigger than it looked above." Jaune noted as they crossed the bridge, the swiftly moving stream was actually river rapids.

"You can usually catch some pretty awesome fish when the water isn't so cold." Bianca explained, looking down at the water as plates of ice shattered against the swiftly moving water. The snow was deep on the bridge, but Jaune had taken care of that, using his great sword as a snow plow to create a path.

"Somewhere, a blade smith has a sudden urge to kick your ass." Bianca noted as she watched Jaune hack away at the snow.

Jaune merely let out a grunt as he continued his work, he had his head down, intensely trying to work his way to the cliff where the snow ended and the road began. A sharp bang caused him to break his focus and jump, his head whipping around for the source of the sound as it reverberated off the cliff walls.

PIIIISSSHHHH! KA-BOOM!

The snow fifty feet from Jaune suddenly erupted in a spew of ice and steam.

"On the cliff!" Bianca yelled and ran in front of Jaune, he turned and looked, the White Fang had begun marching down the cliff-side as fast as they dared. A silver glint caught his eyes just seconds before a familiar bang sounded. Mechs, the White Fang had somehow got their hands on _friggin_ mechs. Jaune began to sludge through the snow with Bianca, but both kept tripping in the thick powder.

PIIIISSSHHHH! KA-BOOM!

That was less than 30 feet, it managed to make Jaune fall over, he noticed the crater it left, he did not want to be near those things when they went off. However, It did give Jaune an idea, and he decided to take a chance, "Bianca! Get behind me!" She did and Jaune raised his great sword and focused.

THWIP! THOOM!

Jaune forced aura into his blade and then sent a golden stream of power down a trajectory to the open mouth of the structure, the snow instantly dissolved. Jaune was surprised to have Bianca give him a kiss, "You have your moments and damn if they aren't amazing!"

Jaune smiled and then ran before they could launch another rocket. They made it inside, just as the next rocket slammed into the building.

KA-BOOM!

The roof they were under groaned, Jaune and Bianca dashed quickly inside as the roof crumbled and collapsed. The area ended up being a cave of sorts, dust crystals had been uniquely shaped to act as a kind of light so they weren't completely in the dark.

"Well that was close," Jaune said dismissively as he looked back at the now sealed entrance. "How are we supposed to get to the academy now?"

"Follow me," Bianca said as she walked down the hallway, Jaune followed. Eventually the hallway came to the end next to a massive door, "Here we go!" Bianca said, nodding for Jaune to raise his weapon. She pushed her foot against the door and then swiftly surged forward with her spear and slammed into…nothing.

It was a massive open area from what Jaune could see, his mouth hung open as he looked up. A staircase spiraled upward, higher and higher it went around the perimeter of the opening. Jaune also noticed hallways that lead off from the stairway on different flights and walkways that circled the perimeter at different floors. They were in the school.

…

"The builders decided to dig into the mountain to build the school, using the natural warmth of the mountain to insulate the school." Bianca explained, "The visible portion of the school is actual just a small portion compared to what's really here. Just remember to keep your voice down, we don't want to attract any grimm."

Jaune gulped as he looked at all the additional paths that lead further in the mountain. It would take ages to try and find the artifact, thankfully Bianca lead the way. They quickly ran into the hallway in front of them and ran downstairs, Jaune was surprised that this place could even go further down. The hallway opened up to reveal a massive space that seemed to stretch endlessly, although it was hard to tell, as massive amounts of machinery blocked Jaunes view.

"What is this?" Jaune asked in a whisper, it looked familiar to him somehow.

"Airships," Bianca replied. "Kairos used to hold their air fleet inside the academy to protect them from the elements. Unlike your fancy ships of today, back then they were quiet fragile."

"Why are they still here?" Jaune looked as he studied the now archaic machines.

"It was one of my missions," Bianca said, Jaune looked up at her in confusion. "When the fighting started, I destroyed the opening, keeping them for them to be deployed. It stopped any of the factions from trying to get their hands on them. However, it also meant that there was no defense against the nevermores when they arrived" She said, pointing to a pile of massive boulders that seemed to form a line against one of the walls. "Let's keep moving, Grimm most certainly are nearby."

As if on que, a beowolf howled nearby, causing the hair on Jaunes neck to stand straight up. He gripped his sword a little tighter and followed Bianca as she ran to the right, sharply following the wall. She stopped near a large boulder and then began to push. "A little help?" She grunted, Jaune got next to her, and together they pushed the boulder out of the way to reveal a much smaller passage way, lit up by dust lights.

"Further down the rabbit hole we go," Jaune said with mock enthusiasm. Bianca kept a stoic face which surprised Jaune, obviously they were in a bit of situation, but she would normally give a situation a little levity. As they walked further down the path it opened up to a cave, Jaune was taken back. If it was possible, this cave was bigger and more impressive. Massive prisms of dust jutted out of the ground in all colors, Jaune let out a low whistle and then looked at the middle of a cave. There was what he could only describe as a shrine with an ornate roof that covered a stairway, and at the top of the stairway…

"The eye," Jaune said in a low voice, Bianca merely shook her head in acknowledgement. Jaune and Bianca climbed the stairway to artifact, a faint glow radiated from it. "It's beautiful," Jaune said, indeed it was even more beautiful in person than Jaune would have ever even thought possible, the duo stood there for a moment, mesmerized by it before Bianca reached forward to grab it.

" _WAIT!"_ Jaune screeched, causing Bianca to jump in fright and look over at him.

 _"What!?"_ She hissed, Jaune put his hand to his forehead and moaned.

" _Haven't you seen any action movie EVER! If we grab it and don't have something to replace it with of equal weight something bad will happen_!" Jaune whispered quickly, but Bianca merely smacked the back of his head.

" _I PUT IT HERE YOU IDIOT! THERE ISN'T ANY TRAPS!"_ Bianca said in a whisper that came out more as a yell. Jaune suddenly became very interested in his shoes, Bianca grabbed the eye, turned Jaune around and put it into his bag.

"Alright, let's go!" Bianca said and began down the stairway, Jaune followed.

WHIP-POW!

Bianca feel back and Jaune felt something hit his face, he reached up and touched his face. He pulled his hand back, blood. He turned to look at where the shot was fired from, he saw Bonnie holding a high powered rifle and what appeared to be a lieutenant walking into the cavern. Jaune pulled out his great sword and looked at Bianca, her eyes where closed and blood was beginning to stain her clothes, "No…nononono," he reached down to check her over.

"Oh no you don't!" Bonnie yelled lowering her rifle.

WHIP-PING!

Jaune deflected the shot back towards her, Bonnie let out a 'yip!' as the bullet went screaming by, imbedding itself in the wall behind them. He knelt down and looked over Bianca, the shot thankfully was high on her shoulder, missing any vitals or arteries, but her shoulder blade looked broken. As he looked over her, Biancas eyes snapped open and she softly grabbed his hand and looked up at him with uncertain eyes.

"Valhart honey? Looks like I messed up a bit this time…this could be it…a shame about the baby…what…what were we going to name her?" She then closed her eyes and slipped into unconsciousness.

"Well that's one down, I'll let you deal with the other for fun-sies." Bonnie said happily, the lieutenant smiled and grabbed his weapon, a massive chainsaw and began walking forward. " Who would've thought a pathetic old hag could cause that much trouble, oh well! It looks like I get to have the last laugh!" Bonnie said with a giggle.

Jaune snapped, and something deep within erupted…

Instantly, his aura began to glow, the Lieutenant didn't seem to care however as he walked over to Jaune revving up his, trying to get a reaction out of him. "Looks like I finally get to kill an academy brat." The Lieutenant said in satisfaction, he raised his saw over the kneeling hunter, he didn't even notice that the great sword Jaune was wielding began to hum, with power.

"Question." Jaune said, not even looking up at the lieutenant, "How many of you are roaming around the academy?"

"Uh? ….There's enough to find the artifact if it's around here! But as for you? Sorry, you'll be killed by just _me._ " The man said arrogantly.

"Oh! No need to look for the artifact, it's right here!" Jaune said softly as he reached around and opened up his pack, the artifacts soft glow lighting up the chainsaw wielders face.

"Uh…Wha? Why are you telling me this?" The lieutenant said dumbfounded, Jaune looked up at him and the lieutenant took a step back as Jaune stood up, his iris's aglow and a dangerous intensity upon his face. The man had been around since the beginning of the white fangs start into terrorist enterprises and had come close to dying in many operations over the years. However, for the first time, he felt a cold chill run down his spine as Jaune stood up and looked him in the eye. A smile cracking across his face.

"My name is Jaune Arc and by the end of today, you and everyone in the white fang is going to speak of me in only hushed tones and terrified whispers."

The Lieutenant slashed his chainsaw downward…


	13. Chapter 13

…

RRRROOOAAARRR! SCCCCRRREEAAACH! TWIP! POW!

The white fang lieutenant fell over in shock, his sawblade useless as the chain had been broken into pieces, his face was also slightly bruised. Jaune glanced at his shocked expression before casually looking up at a terrified Bonnie, she snarled as she lowered her rifle, but the weapon shook in her arms.

POW! THWIP! POW! THWIP!...POW! THWIP!... _Click_!

Jaune had pushed his aura into folds as he swatted the bullets away, deflecting them with his bare hands as he slowly waltzed up to where Bonnie was standing. She let out a horrified gasp when the gun had clicked on an empty chamber and looked up at Jaune in fear, his face was drained off all emotion.

"What the hell are you?!" She said in a whisper, she then threw the gun in desperation. Jaune caught it with ease, Bonnie glanced at him one more time and then bolted back down the passage from which she came. Jaune sensed another person's aura behind him and quickly bowed at the waist as a massive left hook came flying by where his head was moments ago. He quickly twisted around and brought up his great sword up and then down in a full body arc.

SWISH! GRRAAAHHH!

The lieutenant went tumbling backwards, a shallow cut across his chest. He careered into one of the prisms of dust, going limp against the smooth red surface. Jaune looked around, with no more enemies to fight, he let out a sigh and then focused on his breathing. The entire time he was fighting felt like a dream, with no more threats to keep him on his toes, the weight came crashing down as Jaune hit his knees breathing heavily as sweat began to pour down his face. He vomited a bit, fear washing over his mind.

 _Bianca,_ the thought quickly passed through his mind as he got up and raced over to where she was. He grabbed her and then was immediately thrown to the ground… he looked up to see her with a knife closely pressed to his throat.

"Bianca?!" Jaune cried out, she blinked and then looked around.

"Whoops, guess you caught me off guard," she said faintly.

"More like on guard," Jaune retorted as he helped her up, throwing her arm over his shoulder. She let out a pained gasp as she stood up. Jaune gave her a confused expression, "Your telling me that you can dish enormous amounts of whoop ass, but a little bullet wound can bring you down?" Bianca gave him a cold glare.

"Let us get out of this mess and I'll show you how much a 'little bullet wound' can hurt!" She mumbled behind gritted teeth. Jaune began to walk them towards the entrance from which they came. "Nononono! Don't go that way!" Bianca said, she then pointed further down the cavern, behind the shrine. "Go this way! There should be an exit we can take to keep us away from the White Fang." Jaune looked at her with a confused expression.

"Then why didn't we take that way to get in?" He asked, Bianca looked down.

"Because I forgot about it?..." She then became really interested in the dust prisms. Jaune merely let out a sigh and mumbled about something about dolts, Bianca slapped him across the head. He began to whine, but Bianca cut him off, "um, bleeding here. Remember? Let's not waste any more time than we need to. My aura will heal a good portion, but I still need some medical assistance for something this bad," she said, looking at the wound.

Jaune slung his pack from his shoulder, "I've got some supplies." Jaune pulled out the medical pack he had brought with him and opened it up looking for sutures and a needle. The sound of voices caused Bianca and Jaune to snap their heads toward the entrance.

"No time!" Bianca whispered loudly, she then grabbed Jaunes medical pack and stood up on her own. She was a little woozy at first, but quickly became more stable as she used her spear as a walking cane. "We'll do it on the go!" They then proceeded to quickly walk further into the cave. As to where, Jaune didn't have a clue.

….

After a few minutes Jaune began to hear a low roar, he pulled out his sword, but didn't implement aura. He needed to conserve it in case of White Fang acolytes decided to surprise him. Eventually, the roar was deafening, either it was something else or…well, he prayed it wasn't a grimm, by the roar it would have to be the mother of all monsters.

Thankfully, as he rounded the corner his fears where alleviated. The roar was coming from a waterfall, a river was running in a swift stream, Jaune also noticed several other structures that didn't belong in the cave.

"What are all these shacks doing here?" Jaune asked as he followed the rows of dilapidated buildings which went along the water until coming across a large watermill with a large wheel resting just above the churning water. The water came from a massive waterfall which discharged from the ceiling of the cave. Huge stalactites and stalagmites, looking like massive earthen daggers with dust jutting out at random angles, basking the room in a dull glow.

"Miners," Bianca said, coming behind him to look at the small habitat. "They were all getting setup to form communities to help excavate the dust deposits, but before they could begin the fighting started and most of these communities where abandoned, the rest fell prey to thieves." She began walking down a small path towards the buildings, Jaune followed. The inside of the building was a strange assortment of metal and wooden furniture with large piped that came out of the buildings and through the cave ceiling. Jaune looked at them with confusion.

"Air vents," Bianca explained, "down here amongst all the dust and dirt getting kicked up from the mining, fresh was considered a luxury item." Bianca said, tracing the route of the pipes with her good hand. "They are also our ticket out of here, take a look." Jaune followed the pipe and saw that the pipes went from the individual homes and converged into a singular tube that went into the millhouse and then straight up through the cave. "If the caves began to collapse, people would access the main air vent as a direct route to the surface, they were built strong to survive a collapse so they should still be in good shape."

They walked into the millhouse, "Bingo," Bianca chimed. The main air tube formed a ninety degree angle as it reached the base of the building, at its angle was a small metal door. Jaune began to walk forward, but due to the poor lighting tripped over a small wooden box.

"Ouch!" Jaune cried, as he rubbed his head, dust kicked up from the floor, slightly blinding him. He then heard a sharp intake of breath from Bianca.

"Whatever-you-do-don't-move" She said rapidly, Jaune froze completely still, Bianca called herself as she rested against her spear. "Very carefully…stand up." Jaune stood up and walked slowly toward her, he couldn't see a thing on the floor. To combat this, he closed his eyes and focused on her aura, immediately her silhouette appeared and he began to tip toe towards her. When he got to her, she tore off a piece of cloth from her shirt and wiped his eyes. When he could see he turned around and looked at the floor, several small rectangular blocks littered the floor.

"What is it?" Jaune said, picking up the brick like object, it felt smooth, but like putty. Bianca let out a shrill shriek.

" _That is grade-A mining explosives, be careful PLEASE!"_ Bianca mumbled loudly, she was having a hard time holding back her panic. Jaune made her panic rise even further as he grabbed another piece and put them both into his pack. He turned to face her, "it could be useful," He explained. " Or would you rather deal with those mechs with just your aura and spear?"

"Hey I can take'em," She said weakly, slightly stumbling over her spear/crutch and mumbling a few swears. Jaune walked over to her with concern, "we've got something we need to deal with." He grabbed her and then opened the door to the vent, they stepped inside. Jaune grabbed a small medical pack out of his bag, he had a pair of plyers, a shot of anesthesia, and some stiches. Bianca unlocked her armor and reveal her tank top underneath. Jaune looked at the wound, and began to rely on his field training. Thankfully, Professor Peach's class was the one class he did well in, it took about ten minutes. Bianca rolled her arm around, she winced in pain, but seemed able to move better. Jaune examined the slug, he had pulled out of before flicking it to the ground. He turned to look at Bianca, "What nex-" He was cut off however, by Bianca's soft lips. They stood there for several seconds before backing away, Jaune slightly gasping for air.

"Wha…What was that for?" He said breathlessly, Bianca stopped and thought for a minute.

"For _everything…"_ She replied, they then turned and looked up the air shaft small crystals let off a soft glow, denoting footholds for them to climb. Bianca tried to pull herself up but winced in pain and immediately letting go, falling back into Jaunes arms.

"Lets try something else," Jaune suggested as he stepped in front of her and lowered his back for her to grab on. She pulled herself up and used her legs around his waist for support, Jaune was straining at all the weight he was carrying. He decided to use some of his aura to augment his stamina and immediately felt the strain relinquish its pain upon his back and neck. He easily began to climb up the walk way and up the tube towards the surface.

…

After what felt like an eternity Jaune and Bianca made up the shaft to where it turned and began to walk down the tube. Jaune had stopped using his aura and instantly felt like he had done an hour-long session of Nora's 'flower power training', they walked until the crystals seemed to end on the side, forming a small rectangle. Jaune felt around and grabbed onto a door, he twisted it and then pushed with all his strength, the door inched open. Soon, they were standing outside, the midday sun greeting them with warm soothing rays against the chilly air.

They appeared to further up the river and out of sight of the school. Jaune looked around and noticed a small bridge which lead across the river, unlike the last one however, this one was much more rickety. The two hunters went over there options.

"We could try to cross now, but I'm not sure if the bridge will hold the both of us." Jaune said, he looked at the churning river. "Falling into that could be lethal."

"No shit," Bianca said bluntly, "but falling into the hands of the White Fang would probably hurt a hell of a lot worse."

Jaune weighed his options, "Alright, here's what we will do. You go across first and then I'll follow." He had a plan in mind if something went wrong, he just hoped he wouldn't have to use it. Bianca nodded and slowly began to creep along the bridge, her staff making soft _thump_ noises as she hobbled along.

GGGRRROOOAANNN!

Bianca turned and faced Jaune, "Please, for the love of all that is pure, tell me that was your stomach."

CRACK!

The bridge began to fall apart Jaune acted on sheer instinct.

TWIP! SHOOP!

He sent his golden aura forward, slamming into Bianca and sent her hurtling into the air. "Umph!" She breathed as she landed in a snow bank. Jaune wanted to laugh at her as her feet stuck straight up in the air, but as he looked at the bridge he realized he was in trouble.

"Well, looks like I'll need to find another way across." He called out to Bianca, she nodded and then pointed further up the river, ice covered the river but was breaking off into large sheets that gently glided down the river to the churning rapids.

"Oh no," Jaune let out as he looked at what he was about to attempt to cross, it was going to be a game of hop scotch he couldn't afford to lose.

…


	14. Chapter 14

"Come on….hurry up!" Bianca cried out, as Jaune walked very slowly across the ice, he was half way out. Jaune would let out a panicked cry every time the ice creaked and shifted under his weight. Worse yet, Jaune couldn't even _see_ the ice, the entire sheet was under snow that came up to his ankle. Every footstep was a chance to either keep going or fall into the water and under the ice. Jaune took another step…

BLAM!

Jaune froze as he felt something wiz by him, he slowly turned around. Kara stood at the edge of the river with her gun sword, she went to fire again.

 _Click!_

She looked at her gun with betrayal, with hesitation in her steps she began walking across the cracked ice, finally testing the stability. She let out a grin, her faunas' abilities gave her the advantage as she began to hop around the ice, her ram abilities letting her step more lightly that the blonde warrior.

Jaune raised his sword, Kara decided against using her sword, as it would make her weight unstable and possible to fall through the ice, guns were out for a similar reason. Bianca began to raise her spear, but Jaune waved her off, if she missed it could destabilized the ice. Bianca, however, had one weapon left, her horns. She ran on all fours, charging into Jaunes chest at full force before he could react, thankfully Jaune had just enough aura to deal with it. However, Jaune was out, any more hits and it was going to be over for him and his sword had landed in the snow a few feet away.

He kicked the woman off, and rolled, the area he had fallen quickly filling with water which bubbled up from below. That gave Jaune an idea, Kara was getting back into stance getting ready to charge, Jaune needed to act fast! He grabbed his sword and lightly stabbed into the snow then flicked it up, a small pile of snow flying up into Kara's eyes.

"Pppfffffttt. Coward, fight like a hunter!" Kara roared.

"I am a hunter you idiot!" Jaune retorted, he took a step back and then stabbed his blade into ice this time.

CRACK!

That was the sound Jaune wanted to hear!

He then stepped back again.

CRACK!

That was one he didn't want to hear…

He realized quickly that he was trapped. If he stepped forward he would fall through the hole he had made, if he took another step back…Jaune could feel his shoe getting wet. He didn't have time to think though, as Kara came barreling towards him. Jaune had an idea, not a good idea, but an idea. She was almost on top of his trap.

CRACK! THWOOSH!

Jaune could almost laugh at Kara's face of stupid wonder, as she went from charging at Jaune to falling through where Jaune had stabbed his blade into the ice. However, time was of the essence, as Kara fell forward Jaune stepped on her back and leaped. Jaunes' vision went dark as he landed in snow. Very slowly, he moved to stand up, when he was finally standing he turned around. There was a hole where Jaune had been standing and no sign of the woman.

Jaune swiftly crawled across the remain ice and to the other side. Bianca watched the water and ice for any sign of movement, after a few moments she let out a sigh. "She was a determined one." She said in admiration, "but hopefully that's the last of her." Jaune looked back at the water and let his aura flow out as far as it could.

"No, she's not dead." Jaune said blankly, he could feel her aura rapidly spinning around her, she was slowly swimming to the other side. She burst forth from the water, her breath misting in the wind as she shook from the cold. She looked across and saw Jaune and Bianca, she reached for her weapon, but found it was gone, lost to the icy waters.

"DAMN YOU! I WILL _MURDER_ YOU!" She screamed, Jaune merely looked at with her a sad expression.

"Yeah! Well get in line, I'm sure we will be able to pen you in alongside the Grimm and your buddies!" Jaune yelled, Bianca let out a smile as Kara deflated and began to walk slowly back the way she came, clutching her sides as she shook from the cold. It hurt Jaune a bit though to watch her defeated expression, it reminded him of himself when he had tried to go through combat school. Bianca looked at his pitied expression with confusion.

"I used to be like that." Jaune explained, Bianca looked at him even more confused.

"You used to be some murderous faunas and a chick? Well…that would explain some things." Bianca said, a coy smile showing she knew what he meant. Jaune merely rolled his eyes, they then began walking up the trail. A few hours later, they found themselves overlooking the city, it seemed completely abandoned. An uncomfortable silence resonating from the city.

"Let's go!" Bianca said, her tone and attitude was hopeful as they began to run down the hill, Jaune felt something. He dare didn't give it a name, but if he had to give it a name…it was hope.

…

The city was indeed abandoned, save for a few patrols, Jaune and Bianca were making a practical beeline towards the exit. When they got to the gate though, they hit a pretty large snag. The door was shut, how the white fang did it Jaune didn't have a clue.

"Dammit! They must have explored the tower; the thorn has the controls to set the city into lock down!" Bianca hissed, Jaune looked up at the tower but saw something beyond it.

"Bianca! We've got bigger issues!" Jaune yelled, pointing to the black clad figures forming on the ridge line, Jaune and Bianca looked at the tower and the black line as it began to slowly form on the ridge. Suddenly several large silvery figures rose above the shadowy figures, the mechs, glistening in the sun.

"We've got twenty minutes, I guess, before they get here." Bianca said calmly, "We need to get into the tower, shut off the controls and get out before they get here and rip us to shreds with those mechs." Bianca said, Jaune quickly came up with a plan on the spot. He dropped his bag and began to shuffle around.

"Where is it? Where! Ah-Ha! Here we go!" Jaune said confidently as he pulled out a silver looking brick with a red button on top, Bianca gave Jaune a curious expression. "It's a signal to the air ships at Beacon," he explained. "Stay here, I'll go open the gates. When I do, I want you to run and keep mashing the button, it will take them at least thirty minutes to arrive so we will need to get a jumpstart on them.

Bianca nodded, "Are you sure?"

"You can't fight, not in that condition, and that is our one-way ticket out of here." Jaune said confidently, his tasks set before him and then took off towards the tower, his aura had regenerated some and he felt better about going rather than Bianca. He ran straight for the center of town and before to long found himself standing before the imposing structure, a massive iron door in front of him. He took a breath and stepped inside, the door opening with surprisingly little noise. Jaune felt a chill, as the door swung shut and the darkness swathed over him. He head no idea how he was going to win, even if he did get the gate open, the White Fang would surely pick them off in the foothills. He wished he had a large object to...

He smiled, he had an idea.

…

Jaune hated stairs, he didn't before, but he did now. He had started to up the tower triumphantly, but by the twentieth floor, that bravado was gone replaced with panting and cursing every time he looked out a window and saw the battalions of White Fang warriors walking down the hill, the mechs in tow. Thankfully they seemed to be cautious, searching ubiquitously for the two hunters, buying them precious time.

Finally, Jaune had reached the pinnacle of the tower, two oaken doors stood in front of him with an ornate pattern across them. Jaune took a deep breath and felt through with his aura past the doors for anyone. He searched around, but no one seemed to be inside the room.

"Nice of you to join us," A voice whispered, before Jaune could react he felt someone kick him hard in the back. He went flying into the door, knocking him into the doors. The two old doors cracked and shattered free from the door frame, Jaune rolled across the floor and bumped into something.

Jaune was dazed, his vision blurred he began to feel around. He felt a bar above him and proceeded to pull himself up, his vision came in focus and he found himself grabbing onto the shaft of spear which was half-way buried in the wall. _Poor Valhart, Bianca has one hell of an arm!_ Jaune thought in the back of his head, he then turned to see Adam standing in the door way.

"You've caused quite a bit of trouble for a human, for that you're going to pay!" Adam said calmly, Jaune was to tired, both from tasting a door and trying to climb up the stairs.

"Have you seen what trouble your lackeys have been causing _me_? You're lucky I don't charge you a gratuity fee!" Jaune said with a faint chuckle, Adam glared, he didn't like it when his opponents weren't terrified. In a blink of an eye, Adam was on top of Jaune, coming down for a strike at his throat. Jaune fell back in shock, grabbing the old spear back, the shaft bending and flexing due to the new weight. Before it could break, Jaune let go.

TWACK! OOOHHH!

Bullseye, Jaune let out a smile as Adam hit the ground, cupping his groaning as he did. Jaune rolled forward and ran to the exit. He paused and looked around frantically, he then eyed a lever on a control panel next to a window, he pulled it and looked out the window.

SCREEEEECH!

The gate to exit the city slowly began to open, Jaune then pulled out his great sword and slashed the lever in half, locking it in place. He then turned and ran down the tower so fast, several times he had to ram into the wall to keep from falling down the stairs. In half the time, Jaune found himself at the base of the tower, he fumbled around in his backpack for a moment and then walked around the base of the tower for a few seconds. He found a pack Adam must have carried into the tower, out of curiosity opened it.

"HOLY SHIT!"

Jaune was amazed as he pulled Crocea Mors out of the bag, it was even still in its sheath! He quickly pulled it around him, the sword resting across his shoulder blade, just above Nuit d'Orléans. He began to hear hurried footsteps from above, Jaune ran outside and then towards the exit in the distance. He then began to hear a light roar behind him, he turned around and immediately regretted it. The White Fang had come running at the sound of the gate opening, the mechs not too far behind. Jaune began to sprint. Water splashing into his face as the he ran across a flooded street, he heard a loud bang behind him.

BOOM! WOOSH!

Jaune stumbled as an explosion rocked the ground behind him,debris went flying and water sprayed everywhere with a hiss. The gate seemed to be miles away as Jaune kept running, he needed to get to there quickly.

ZIP! POW! POW! POW! POW!

Jaune felt bullets whip by him, he pulled out his shield and held it out behind him. He felt the ping of bullets against his shield, he continued forward, his eyes fixated on the massive gate. _Just a little more_ , he thought, he ran with all his might, he even began to put a small portion of his aura into his stamina. He could see the road outside the door, the bridge cleared of all debris.

PPPIIISSSHH!

Jaune turned to see a rocket being fired from a mech, instinctively he rolled to the side and then leaped…

BOOM!

Jaune was sent flying forward, he slammed into the cement and blacked out. Slowly, his senses returned.

"….ouch…" was all he could muster to say as he stood up, his aura was gone from that last blast. Jaune slowly stood up, he looked up. He was at the gate, Jaune let out a smile, he then heard a noise and slowly turned around.

The White Fang where standing semi-circle around him, every member giving him a glare from behind their terrifying masks. Adam stepped forward, Kara standing beside him.

…It was over…

…


	15. Chapter 15

"Well…well…hunter…I must hand it to you. For a human, you've been the most irritating, stubborn human I've ever met." Adam said with praise, "now we get to see how stubborn you are at _dying_." With that the White Fang slowly began to move, waiting for Jaune to make his move, Adam turned and went to walk back.

"You know for a leader you're pretty terrible at it." Jaune said aloud, Adam turned around and looked at him. "You can't find two people? With all of this!" Jaune threw his hands out around at the crowd. "You can't lead them to find two people, _and_ what are they even doing? You're having to dig around and search for something, like _beasts of burden._ " Jaune let out a smile, he put away his shield and pulled out his Nuit d' Orleans. Jaune casually spun it around with his hand, the masked group flinched and drew up their weapons.

"Aren't you liberating your fellow faunas? You are doing a pretty good job of it by sticking around these ruins aren't ya? Here's a good question, what is it for? It wouldn't be to help bring something to a human, would it Adam?" Jaune said pointing at the man, Adam remained motionless, but his teeth were bared, the man was seething.

"That isn't true, is it Adam?" Kara asked, she sent a glance to Adam. The man remained silent, Jaune threw up his hands in vindication.

"His silence speaks for him. While your fellow friends and family are singing like a canary faunas in a dust mine, this man has been slaving you around to meet the needs of a hum-" Jaune saw a red streak flash and brought up his sword just barely in time.

PANG!

Jaunes' sword took the energy, but had unfortunately it was too old to handle the force. The blade was sliced clean in half, the great sword was now a short sword. He inspected it, even without its tip, the broken blade was still a formidable weapon. Jaune looked up to see Adam breathing heavily, " _LEAVE…HIM…TO…ME!"_ With that Adam began to walk slowly toward Jaune, Jaune glanced at his the tower, then back at Adam and smiled, Adam froze and looked at him. " _What are you planning?_ " Jaune looked at him, then the crowd.

"Since I am a hunter, it is my duty to give you a chance at mercy so here is mine. 'Leave now and be spared, otherwise…I'll have to deal with you… _all of you_." Jaune spoke confidently, there was a pause in the air, then the crowd of masks burst into laughter. Even Adam had stopped and given him a smirk, Kara was bent over, tears on her face. The laughing died however when Jaunes aura, which had been regenerating, began to glow around his body. Jaune lifted his great sword, Adam and the rest of the White Fang were on the defensive, ready to counterstrike. Jaune lifted his sword and aimed it at Kara, his aura went out. "Wait for the bang!" Jaune said and then winked at the ram faunas, she gave him a confused look.

BOOM!

The tower behind them simple exploded, black tile and rock went flying, pelting some of the White Fang in the back of the crowd.

GGGRRRROOOOAAAANNNN!

The tower slowly began to fall…towards Jaune and the White Fang. Adam turned and watched in shock as the tower began to fall into the street, crushing everything underneath, the mechs were the first to go. Unable to move in time, the White Fang members began toeither be crushed or scream and scatter in all directions. Adam whipped around, "HUNT-" he noticed a golden energy begin to flow and crackle around him, his iris a flaming blue. Jaune smiled at Adam.

"…bang…" he said softly, then sent a massive tidal wave of energy over Adam. Adam braced hard and at first held against the golden wave, but slowly he began to slide back and then eventually...

"AAARRAAGGHH!" Adam went flying backwards, he landed on the ground with a dull thud and rolled up on himself. He quickly stood up and whipped out his katana, he went into a crouch and prepared to dash forward, but a sudden shadow loomed overhead. Adam turned around just in time to be smashed by the tower. The sudden crash of the tower sent a wall of air that crashed into Jaune and sent him flying out the door in a billow of dust and smoke.

Jaune found himself laying right next to the edge of the bridge, he quickly scooted away from the edge and towards the middle. He shuttered to think what would happen if he had been thrown just a little further. Jaune looked back at the gate, the door was inaccessible, sealed off by a pile of debris from the tower. Jaune looked at it and then fell to his knees, his plan had worked, the explosives he had found in the miner settlement had worked and thankfully the support pillars in the base of the tower had been exposed. Making it easy for him to put the explosive in such a way that the tower would fall in the direction he wanted it to.

However, the bit about surviving was uncertain, as a matter of fact, he was doubtful that he was going to make it through. His goal was to give Bianca a better chance of making it to the rendezvous point. With that thought in his mind, Jaune stood up and began to jog out of the mountain and down into the foothills. As he made it to the rend of the bridge he heard a noise and turned around, his heart jumped into his throat and he dove under a pile of debris still on the bridge. The Grimm had arrived in the city. Hundreds, if not several thousand Nevermores let out a horrific scream in unison, like a hellish symphony. The White Fang who had survived, the falling tower began to struggle against a fate worse than death as the Nevermores swooped down forming a black cloud, talons out stretched. Jaune could do nothing as he watched White Fang soldiers shake and flail, trying desperate to escape their claws, but it was to no avail. Jaune watched, as the Nevermores rose high into the sky, carrying their tasty morsels back to their nest. Afterwards, there was an eerie silence that went over the city, Kairos had fallen once more. Jaune pulled himself from the garbage he was under, he was surprised to find tears in his eyes, shocked from the events he had seen. He turned and never looked back as he left the cursed city, never to return.

…

" _Shit….SHIT!"_ Jaune yelled, he slammed his broken sword into the cliff side as he began to fall down, and almost of the side. The loose gravel making it next to impossible to run and dangerous to even walk upon, more than twice Jaune had plunged his sword into the rocks, sparks flying as he slid to a halt. Jaune looked down the cliff, he had less than forty feet down to go. Jaune picked himself up, his hands bloody from scrapping along the rocks, and proceeded to slowly jog down the, rest of the way. Once on solid ground Jaune grabbed his tracking device. He had left the artifact with Bianca, but kept the tracker so that he could find her afterwards. He broke out into a sprint, he was eager to get back to Bianca and back to Beacon. Jaune kept running over the hills the tracker getting stronger, eventually he was less that fifty feet away just over a hill, but something felt off.

He tried to feel out with his aura, but was to drained to preform it. Jaune sheathed his great sword and pulled out Crocea Mors and his shield. He proceeded up the hill until he was about to crest the hill.

"RRRRAAAAGGGHHH!"

A black and white blur slammed into Jaune, he instinctively rolled and kicked the figure of before he went rolling down the figure. Eventually, Jaune got his footing and stopped rolling, standing up and immediately getting knocked back down. This time Jaune swung wildly and the figure backed off, Jaune stood up and faced his opponent directly.

"Round three! You _BASTARD_!" Bonnie said, all pretenses of innocence gone from her.

"Where's Bianca!" Jaune demanded, Bonnie gave him a smug look.

"She's not dead… _yet,_ once I've dealt with you though," she flicked her claws in a slow motion. Jaune raised his sword and smiled.

"Correction… _if …if_ you deal with me you will go after her." Jaune said, he then looked at her and motioned over his shoulder. "I don't know if you noticed, but your little friends won't be coming to your aid."

Bonnie looked up and stared back at the city, her eyes went wide as she noticed the tower was gone. She immediately grabbed behind her back and pulled out a walkie talky, an extended range that could reach back to her home base. She paused for a second, a bit shaky in her breathing, then she spoke.

" Home den…this is Agent Blue," Jaune snorted a bit at the code names. "Come in home den…home den?... _HOME DEN!?...COME IN!"_ She was becoming more and more frantic, Jaune took the time to climb over the hill and look for Bianca, when he got on the other side his heart sank. He ran down the hill and picked up Bianca, she was bloodied across her arms and armor and motionless in his arms. Jaune was panicking, he lowered his head to her chest, he let out a sigh of relief as he felt her heartbeat. Jaune felt his aura slowly returning and was started to pour it into Bianca, but then…

PING!

Jaune brought up his sword reflexively and deflected a bullet off to the side, he looked up to see what he could only describe as pure madness. Bonnie had a wild look on her eyes and her large bunny ears were flicking wildly in directions. She slowly walked down the hill, smiling, but her mouth kept flexing uncontrollably.

"Y-y-you s-sh-should-n't have done that!" She said lowly, Jaune pulled Bianca close and leveled his sword at her. He couldn't leave Bianca, he was using his aura like a cocoon to help keep her from going critical, Bonnie had really done a number on her. Bonnie walked closer, Jaune noticed something else, her claws were infused with dust. The tell-tale yellow hue showing she was using some kind of electric based dust, Jaune dared to feel out with his aura, it wasn't good. She was fully amped up on adrenaline and her aura had barely taken a dip from her tussle with Jaune. Bianca softly moaned as Jaunes aura began to work on her injuries.

 _Click!_

Jaune looked up to see Bonnie had retracted the claws in her gloves and pulled out a pistol. Jaune looked at it and immediately knew he didn't have enough aura to block it.

" _ssshhh…it w-will all-all be over s-s-soon."_ Bonnie said, her mind was clearly gone as she leveled the pistol with an evil grin. Jaune let out a sigh and closed his eyes.

BLAM!

Jaune jumped, waiting for the shot…but it never came…

Jaune looked up to see Bonnie, she flew backwards and then rolled up on the dirt. Jaune looked around, a red blur slammed into him.

"JAUNE!"

Jaune's vision cleared and a familiar red head filled his vision, "Ruby!" he cried! The red headed scythe wielder whipped around to face the murderous bunny. She quickly blurred around her and went to strike, but Bonnie leaped up higher than she anticipated. Bonnie began coming down on top of her, claws out.

BLAM!

Instantly, Bonnie went flying into the hillside as a dust round exploded in her face. "Yang!" Jaune cried out, her and Blake tag teaming on the faunas as she began to ran over the hill. Weiss appeared on the hill to the left of Jaune, Ruby materializing beside her as the two worked to deliver special rounds of dust from ruby's sniper rifle, augmented by Wiess's glyphs. Bonnie was overwhelmed, she let out an frustrated scream, turned and began to run back to the city, team RWBY in hot pursuit.

Jaune felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned to see Ren looking at him with concern, a bullhead carrying the rest of his team appearing over the hill behind him. Pyrrha and Nora jumped out and ran over to them, looking curiously at the woman he held in his arms. Jaune looked down at her and then formulated the words he needed to say. "Help me get her into the bullhead," he said. His team nodded and carefully helped him up while holding Bianca steady as they got into the ship. There was a bunk in the back of the ship, Jaune laid Bianca down and swiftly began searching for medical supplies.

Soon they took off towards the mountains for a bit before lowering again, team RWBY joining them. Ruby running over to him for a hug, "Oh my gosh! We were so worried, Pyrrha was about ready to throw Ozpin and Glynda out the- hey who's that?" She said rapidly, Jaune only catching the last bit, he turned and looked at the woman as he and Ren began to work on her wounds.

"A friend…" he said softly.

The bullhead flew onward to Beacon as the sun began to set, the shattered moon roaming high in the sky…it was truly over…only the aftermath remained.


	16. Chapter 16

Authors Note: It has come to my attention that a significant chunk of the chapter was omitted due to an error with me adding this chapter using the copy-n-paste feature. Consider fixed! Hope you are enjoying the ride, one more chapter to go!

-Sharp

Jaune was asleep next to the red headed woman, he had only lasted a few minutes after he had seen to Bianca's' injuries. Ren had tended to him, and the blonde warrior had curled up next to her, throwing his arm around her reflexively. This had drawn stares from the women of both teams as they sat on either side of the bullhead and took in the scene, they had been silent for several minutes until Nora broke the silence.

"So…want to guess who the mystery woman is?..." She said softly, all the women looked up at her, back to the red head, and then a back to the vixen Valkyrie.

"Well…" Blake started, "she's obviously someone Jaune…trusts…" she said, her cat ears flicking underneath her bow, listening for any sounds coming from the bunk.

"Maybe it's someone Jaune knows!" Ruby said excitedly, "Maybe it's one of his sisters!"

"Why would one of his sisters be way out here!" Weiss barked, Ruby only threw up her hands, not knowing what else to think. Weiss muttered under her breath and shook her head.

"Jaune met someone, perhaps a traveler who was in trouble," Ren explained calmly. "We are hunters and it is our duty to help those in need."

"Well, if Jaune didn't know her before, he certainly seems to know her _now."_ Yang chimed.

 _BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!_

The bullhead began to swerve erratically before smoothing out.

"What happened!" Weiss said, she had leaped into ruby's arms, the red head had immediately started rubbing her back and rocking her, saying ' _There, there, ruby's got you…'_ The rest of the group chuckling as Wiess went red with embarrassment, the speaker overhead crackled to life.

"Attention hunters, sorry about the sudden shake, I hope you're ok! We ran into some technical trouble with our instruments, some kind of interference. We should be arriving in beacon in about thirty minutes." The speaker then crackled out, the teams stared at the person directly in front of them before their eyes wandered to the person who had been quiet the whole time. The spartan seemed to barely breath, as if she was asleep. Though the red tint in her cheeks, revealed she was very much awake.

"What do you think of this Pyrrha?" Ruby asked innocently, receiving a harsh look from her sister. ' _What?'_ Ruby motioned, but Yang only rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure Jaune will have…a…reasonable… _explanation_ …for who the woman is." Pyrrha said with a dangerous calm, she glanced over to where the duo lay. She noticed Jaune hand over the woman and immediately went to looking straight forward, "A…nice…reasonable… _explanation."_ She popped her knuckles as she spoke, Ren let out a small prayer for Jaunes' soul.

Jaune woke up to the feeling of falling, he shot up, wide awake. He realized where he was and let out a sigh of relief, he slowly swung his legs down and let out a groan, his whole body ached. He looked around to see his team and team RWBY all silently looking at him, team RWBY with a mixture of grins and amused smiles, Ren with his usual calm expression, Nora oogaling at him…and then there was Pyrrha.

"Jaune…" she said calmly, he sat up attentively. The way she said his name…that was not a good sign.

"Hey…Pyrrha. Did you enjoy the time as team captain?" Jaune said nervously, Pyrrha lifted her brow, a playful smile across her face.

"Oh…It was…nice…the vytal tournament is coming up, I signed us up. It starts in about two weeks, so there's that…of course you seem to have had your own adventure…care to explain… _her?"_ She then motioned to Bianca, Jaune looked over at the sleeping warrior and gently ran a hand down her shoulder a look of concern ghosted across his face. "It's…a long story…" Jaune said mildly.

"We've got time… _so talk_ …" Pyrrha said, her voice leaving no room for debate, Jaune closed his eyes and let out a sigh. He heard the scuffling of feet and opened his eyes to see Nora and Ruby sitting cross-legged in the floor, the rest of the teams scooching closer. He began to talk about his journey, from beginning to end, the only parts omitted were about Bianca's trials and teams. He was also dodgy about his… _sleeping arrangements_ , Pyrrha giving him a look, ' _We are going to have a talk…later',_ Jaune was looking forward to _that_ conversation.

"So…what exactly can you _do_ with your aura?" Blake asked curiously, Jaune looked around at his friends and smiled.

"Well…kinda… _anything_ really." He laughed, as he glowed lightly, a small golden pool of energy floating in-between his palms. His friends ogled at his new-found powers, after a few seconds the energy winked out of existence.

" _Jaune…where did you learn to do that_?" Pyrrha said in hushed wonder, Jaune merely chuckled.

"Already told you," he pointed to Bianca. "She mentored me and showed me what I was capable of." He laughed as Nora ran up and hugged him, his laughter quickly shifting to a groan as she began to squeeze.

"Aaahhh yeeaaahh! With your aura, my hammer, Pyrrha's spear, Ren's skill, we'll become unstoppable!" She said triumphantly, "and will all look amazing while we do it!" Both teams laughed, but no one noticed Pyrrha's crestfallen face as she got up slowly and walked over to a window…except for Jaune. He began to get up, but felt Bianca begin to stir beside him, the others went completely quiet.

Jaune looked as Bianca cracked an eye at him, "assuming how bad my chest and arms feel, I assume we didn't make it to heaven…did the powers above send us the other direction?"

Jaune chuckled, "They declared a mistrial, judgement was stayed for a later date." Bianca smiled at that and sat up with a groan, her aura having greatly improved her condition. However, she was still greatly sore, as seen by the dark and purple bruises on her arms and lower abdomen. She open her eyes fully and then took to noticing the seven other hunters, she beamed a slight smile at them.

"Hello!" She said softly, "you must be Jaune's friends he mentioned, it's a pleasure to meet you." The team was taken aback, now that she was awake and more visible, the comparisons to a certain _other_ red head warrior were… _uncanny_.

Pyrrha had walked back from the window and the two had immediately began sizing one another up, an air of energy had flooded the tight space. " _Hello"_ the two said in unison, surprise sparked across their faces.

"What is your name?" Bianca said, her voice was soft, Pyrrha sat down and put her hands in her lap. Whatever standoffishness, between the two slowly dissipated as the minutes ticked by and her with the rest of the team began to talk with the Bianca, enamored by her presence. Soon they were getting close to Beacon.

"Where are you from Ms. Nikos?" Bianca questioned a slight light in her eyes, Pyrrha looked at her quizzically.

"Mistral…why do you ask?" She said, a silence hung in the air as green eyes stared into lightning blue. Suddenly, the crackle of the speaker overhead broke their attention.

"Attention hunters! We are beginning to land, Ozpin will be awaiting you." Slowly the ship dipped to the right and began its descent, soon they came to a stand still. As the bullhead doors, two figures were waiting for them.

"Professor Ozpin!" Jaune said happily, ignoring Glynda who was standing to his left.

"Greetings Jaune! It is nice to see you in one piece; your friends were rather eager to retrieve you." He said, motioning to the two teams, he then noticed the other red head behind them. "Miss Coalhart…it's interesting to see you here." Bianca rolled her eyes.

"Honestly Ozpin, you could have come and got it yourself…oh?…who is that you have behind you Ozzy?" Bianca said with mild playfulness, the team began to notice Glynda had casually moved behind Ozpin…as if she was avoiding Bianca. "Who is…is that Ms. Goodwitch?" By that point, Glynda walked from behind her, feigning cheer.

"Greeting hunters! I see you were able to save Mr. Arc, congratulations!" She said, but Pyrrha interjected.

"Does this mean Jaune can stay?" She said plainly, the others looking at Glynda with hope in their eyes. Glynda looked at Jaune apprehensively and with a slight distaste.

"Well, he did need your assistance to leave…and we have no idea how much aid has given him." Glynda said, Team RWBY and JNPR were about to protest right then and there, but Bianca merely waved them off before pointing a finger at Glynda, she was immediately on the backfoot.

"Of _all_ the people… _you?"_ Bianca prosecuted, Glynda looked like she wished she could jump from the landing pad, but Bianca wasn't done. "In all my years of combat… _you…_ the bubblegum chewing-sleeping in class-prideful-barely passing-blonde _bimbo_! Just… _YOU!_ You think you're the one to judge…Goodbody Glynda! If it wasn't for my bruises, your ass would be dust!" Before the _Goodbody_ comment passed, Glynda looked sick …afterwards…

The blonde walked over to Ozpin, grabbing onto him for support. Ozpin merely smiled at her reaction and patted her on the head. "Why don't you go get something to eat and rest for tonight, we will go over the details tomorrow and celebrate Jaunes _official_ entry into Beacon. Ms. Coalhart I'll see you in the infirmary."

It took a second for Ozpins words to sink in, but when it did…

"So Jaune can stay?" Pyrrha said, her eyes filled with hope, Ozpin nodded in response. Instantly Jaune found himself swarmed by the women of team JNPR and RWBY. Even though he was sore from fighting earlier in the day, he felt relieved and enjoyed it, he had proven himself and his right to be there. Jaune got up and began walk with his friends back to the dormitory.

A hand reached out for him though and pulled him aside, he turned to see Bianca looking at him with low eyes.

"So…this is it, huh?" She said softly, when she looked at him her eyes were misty. She then let a tired laugh, "Look these weeks…those…those nights, they were fun. And I want you to know that you are a very special boy to me. You've made me feel young and purposeful again, not just some tired old coot from a long-forgotten city…but…" She looked past him to Pyrrha in the distance who had turned around and looked at them, Bianca returned her gaze to Jaune. "You need something I can't give you…"

Jaune stopped her, "What?! Don't be crazy! What is something you _haven't_ given to me? You've trained me to use aura, helped me with my sword skill, Bianca I can take on five people at once! What can't you do for m-" Bianca stopped him with a few simple words.

"A fresh start." She said sadly, but she had a smile on her face. "The sun has set on my time as a hunter, that mission, was supposed to be my last and one that I thought I wouldn't come back from." She drew her hand across his face, "But you saw me through…" She gently kissed his cheek, "You'll find better love, true love, love that isn't tainted by the past." Jaune simply looked at her with frustration.

"Where do you think I'm going to find someone as talented, good-looking, and as kind as you?!" He retorted, Bianca smiled and glanced past him.

"I think you already have… now go…" Jaune and her stood back, their eyes locked an unspoken understanding passed them…Jaune let out a sigh and then walked where a curious spartan awaited him.

Ozpin looked at them go, leaving only him, Glynda and Bianca. Bianca walked over to him and grabbed her bag, she then pulled out the artifact, the quartz ball silently hummed with power. Ozpin grabbed it and studied it, Bianca let out a small chuckle, drawing Ozpins gaze up to her.

"All these years, an entire city destroyed, an army of grimm plus a new group when Jaune arrived. However, I still have one question…one that has alluded me for years… _What the hell does that thing do?"_ She then pointed to the artifact in Ozpins hand, he merely let out a chuckle.

"Let's just say, the Eye of Silver unlocks the hidden potential of certain people. Similar to the way you drew out the potential of Jaune as I'm lead to believe." Ozpin explained, Bianca let out a chuckle.

"Always explaining without actually explaining the first thing… but you are correct on one thing." She said a gleam in her eye as she looked at Glynda, the blonde shuddered at her gaze. "The boy has remarkable talent with Aura, give him a year and he'd easily be one of your greatest students." Glynda was still despondent at this point as she just leaned on Ozpin and stared onward to nothingness, it was beginning to worry Ozpin.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, with Jaune, for a mission report. Until then, the infirmary awaits you…" Ozpin then motioned towards the school, Bianca seemed to give in to her fatigue, she smiled at Ozpin and then began walking towards the familiar grounds.

Ozpin smiled, "So the boy becomes a man...He will do find Glynda, I sense the potential being fulfilled in him…Glynda?" Ozpin turned and grabbed her by the shoulders, he lightly shook her, "Glynda? Glynda?!"

"It never ends…"She mumbled and slowly began sauntering back to Beacon as if she were drunk. "Just when I think that my past is behind me gone… _poof!_ It comes right…back…" She stumbled and was going to fall if Ozpin didn't appear beside her and begin helping her walk back to the academy, she let out a little laugh. "I think I'm going to be a little late to classes tomorrow," She said unimportantly.

"I think that would be for the best." Ozpin said with a grunt.

…

After a delightful Mistral dish courtesy of Ren, the teams reluctantly parted for the night. As Jaune took a shower, he was amazed by the modern invention that was warm water, eventually he got dressed and walked into the dorm. Ren was standing next to Nora in outside attire, Ren noticed Jaune and walked over to him.

"Nora wanted to go see some movie about a blonde guy with a hammer…she's hoping to see some broken legs. There is a midnight screening so we will be gone for most of the night." Ren said, Jaune patted him on the shoulder and smiled. Afterwards, the flower child and hammer wielder left and Jaune laid in bed, but surprisingly refreshed from his sleep on the bullhead and hot shower. As he closed his eyes and tried to go to bed he felt a weight hit his bed and then lay upon his chest, Jaune cracked his eye open and let out a sigh.

"You're not gonna wait aren't ya?" Jaune asked, Pyrrha hummed a yes in response as he looked up at her, a pout on her face. "You're cute when your angry, you know that?" Pyrrha sent him a soft smile, however Jaune gave her a serious look before closing his eyes. "Ask away…"

"Do you l…lo…are you and Bianca…" She let out a frustrated sigh, but Jaune knew what she was asking. Before the mission Jaune would have been to tense to even think, but after all he had been through…

"Well, for starters, yes. I do enjoy Bianca's company and I would be lying if I said I didn't have feelings for her…" Jaune said, slightly smiling at Pyrrha. Her face was calm, but he could since the tension beneath. "…she is calm, cocky, she has also taught me a lot about myself and what I'm capable of, in truth she is a wonderful woman and she pulled up close to me for warmth many a night." Pyrrha went rigid on top of Jaune, she crossed her arms over her chest, a raise eyebrow telling Jaune to choose his words _carefully_.

"So you like her that much, huh?" Pyrrha said dejectedly, Jaune smiled.

"Yeah, but she does have one glaring issue." Jaune said, Pyrrha looked at him curiously. In response Jaune shifted his hips, causing Pyrrha to teeter and almost fall off. Jaune grabbed her though and put the spartan underneath him, their faces inches apart. " _She isn't you…_ " Jaune whispered, her eyes went wide and mouth opened to speak, but was stopped as Jaune kissed her slowly. She closed her eyes and pulled Jaune close to her tightly, her nervous nature completely melted away. Their lips parted, his taste still fresh in her mouth, she smiled at Jaune.

"Good to know…" She said, as Jaune began kissing down her neck. " I never would have thought of you as a romantic." Jaune looked at her and smiled, he gently nibbled her ear, causing her to let out an excited giggle. He then grabbed her by the shoulders and then threw off his shirt.

"Well Ms. Nikos," he said coyly, smiling as she began to turn red. "The way I see it, our team is out for the night and my many near deaths have made me realize somethings, I may never get to see or do" He brought himself closer to her, " _but, I have a small to-do list I plan to check off…tonight…_ "

…

Ren hummed a happy tune as he and Nora returned from the movie, Nora herself resting her head against his shoulder, arm slid around his. Nora had thoroughly enjoyed the movie, especially the action scenes. She jumped out of her seat every time the hammer would glow with power. "IT'S HAMMER TIME!" She would squeal excitedly, however she went quiet for the rest of the movie when Ren had thrown his arm around her about mid-way through the movie, but still let out an excited cackle every now and again.

As they walked up the stairs to their dorm room Nora looked up at Ren. "Reckon what Pyrrha and Jaune are doing?" She asked with a smile, Ren gave her a quaint smile.

"They are probably resting, Jaune has got to report to Ozpin and then we have to get ready for classes, Jaune has some catching up to do." They rounded the corner and soon stood at their door, but then froze.

There were noises coming from inside.

"That doesn't sound like they are resting…" Nora said softly.

Team RWBY popped out from their door looking at Ren and Jaune with a mixture of annoyance and fascination.

"Hi…" Ruby said timidly her whole face red, half way noting Ren and Nora, the rest of her attention glued to the door from which the … _noises,_ emitted. Ren saw Blake and noticed her annoyed look, cotton balls stuffing her cat ears.

"Three hours…how… _how!"_ She hissed, Yang came up behind her and stroked her ears, causing her whole body to shake as she accidently let out a purr.

"Maybe he barrowed some pointers from _us_." Yang chuckled.

" _Yang!"_ Blake whined, as she chased Yang back into their room, leaving Ruby and Weiss. The snow queen glared at Nora.

"Could you please tell them to stop!" Weiss pleaded to Nora, Ruby gentle patted her shoulder with sympathy and looked at Nora with hope. Hope that was quickly dashed as Nora shook her head.

"Nope! I've been waiting for this to happen as long as Pyrrha!" She said proudly.

"Nora!" Ren scolded, Nora gave him a grin in response.

 _GGGGRRRRR!_ _If you won't do something I WILL!"_ She hissed, she then went to grab the door knob, but Ren stopped her the two glared, about to reach a climax when….

" _Jaune!..._ _JAUNE!..._ _JJJAAAUUUNNNEEE!"_ …the noise behind the door in the room went silent. Weiss looked at the door…no, _beyond_ the door. Her expression completely chagrin with the cries of ecstasy she just heard. Ruby was, well, red like a rose, together they silently walked back to their room and closed the door. Ren let out a sigh and put his hand to his head, he glanced at Nora, she was positively glowing.

She looked at Ren, "Think they will let me be the god-mother?" Ren let out groan.


	17. Chapter 17

The morning came early for Jaune and Pyrrha, both felt pretty sore in their muscles, but they still felt refreshed mentally, both going through their usual morning routine. All was going well…and then they went to breakfast. The dining hall was mostly empty since it was a Friday and most classes were cancelled due to a case of bad seafood the night before in the teachers' lounge. Pyrrha was catching Jaune up to speed on what he missed while he was away. He had already scheduled some meetings in the library to help him get back on track, they came to where Nora, Ren, and Team RWBY were sitting. Pyrrha and Jaune had just bit into a delicious tasting piece of smoked kielbasa sausage when Ruby snickered, the two looked up and noticed most of the group was smiling, save for Weiss.

"So…Pyrrha…" Yang snickered, "How's the sausage?" Blake snorted, Pyrrha looked at the bumblebee duo suspiciously.

"Good I suppose…why?" She asked, the blonde went wide eyed, meanwhile, Ruby buried her face into Weiss's arm. Weiss merely rolled her eyes as she attempted to pull the little warrior off her.

"I don't know…try describing it to us, we don't really like it and weren't able to get any." Yang said with a toothy grin, Blake buried her face into her arms, Pyrrha tried to figure out their game, but went on.

"Well," She started, "It's a little tough…warm…I don't know… meaty…Oh! It's pretty tasty and leaves a mild spicy after…" It clicked for her. "…taste…"

CLINK! CLANK! CLANG!

The silverware from the entire kitchen flew into the air. Forks, Knives, and Sporks hovered motionless in the air. They turned towards the group and then shot toward them.

"Uuuummmm…Pyrrha?" Ruby said calmly, the cutlery zoomed forward, Pyrrha merely closed her eyes and smiled silently, she hummed softly to herself.

"Pppyyyrrrrhhhaaa!" Nora said nervously, the group becoming visibly tense as the kitchenware continued on its dangerous trajectory, those knives were lookin' pretty sharp. There was only twenty feet and closing between them and the radius of silverware.

"P-p-pyrrha! Knock it off!" Yang stammered, "Come on! It was just a joke, please! Pyrrha! Pyrrha! I'M SORRY!" The group closed their eyes as the silverware closed the distance, Ren, Nora, and Ruby dove under the table. Blake and Weiss were able to use their semblances to dodge out of the way and Jaune kept close to the silent spartan.

"YIP!" Yang said in a high pitch yell, her arms shielding her face. After a few seconds…there was no impact of metal against flesh. Yang unshielded herself, the kitchenware had stopped mere inches from her face, she looked behind were she felt something sharp poking her. She saw a small fork sticking hard into her buttocks, she let out a silent prayer and then jumped as the kitchen ware crashed to the floor with a loud metallic screech.

"Apology accepted," Pyrrha said in the ringing silence.

…

After while, Jaune was standing in front of Ozpin. The rest of his friends were behind him, Glynda was nowhere to be seen, she was still having a bit of a rest apparently.

"Well Mr. Arc, I've seen your report, I must say you look rather tired. Any reasons why?" Ozpin said with a calm happiness.

"I-I-I had a lot of catching up to do and celebrating." Jaune said quickly, Ozpin gave him a knowing smile and chuckled, but his smile quickly faded.

"Is it true about the encounter with the white fang? I need details, how many, who lead the group?" Ozpin said with concern, Jaune took a deep breath and recounted the White Fang, how he encountered them, his escapes, and how he ultimately defeated them and the grimm had picked off the rest. When he was done recounting, there was an audible silence in the room, Yang let out a low whistle, Blake looked despondent.

"So…their really… gone?" Blake asked, her voice barely registered in Jaunes ear, he turned to her and nodded grimly. Blake gave a pained look and slowly walked off to the side of the room, Yang went after her.

Jaune turned back to Ozpin, "So where is Bianca?" Ozpin looked at him and opened his mouth to speak.

"Here," Bianca said, Jaune turned to see her walking up from behind the rest of the group, they parted as she strolled up to where Jaune stood. He looked at her, she was looking much better than when he had last seen her, her cuts were healed and bruises mostly faded. She was wearing a white t-shirt and jeans, she seemed to be feeling better as well. She went over to where Ozpin was sitting and turned to face them.

"Is there anything else you need to know?" Jaune asked as he looked at Ozpin.

"No Mr. Arc, you and your friends are dismissed. As I understand you should be able to make it in time for combat practice." With that Jaune let out a sigh, but Bianca nodded for him to go, they would talk later. He and his friends piled into the elevator, Yang and Blake were the last ones in with evidence of Blake having cried a little. Jaune felt _very_ awkward, but didn't even know how to console her. Thankfully, it seemed like Yang did, as she gently stroked her ears underneath her bow, causing her to rest softly against Yang as they descended to the ground level.

Ozpin looked at Bianca whom watched them leave, "Have you thought about my offer?" Ozpin said in a low tone. Bianca looked at him, her brow bent into a sharp intensity as she thought about the conversation she had with Ozpin while in the infirmary. He had met her in the early hours of the morning and discussed a proposition for her.

"As a matter of fact, I have."

…

The group found themselves at the sparing and combat arena, the lights illuminating the entire area. Students had gathered around the arena, ready to spar. A few minutes passed, but Glynda did not appear.

"You think class was canceled?" Weiss said as she checked her scroll for any student updates, but there were none.

"I don't know, but Glynda did seem rather hurt by that Goodbody comment yesterday." Ren said as he surveyed who was in attendance for today.

"Yeah, what was all that about?" Yang asked, Blake was still clinging to her shoulder. Jaune let out a laugh and began to speak.

"Hunters!" A familiar voice called, Jaune wiped around.

"Bianca!" Jaune called out, a hushed murmur spread out as Bianca walked up and stood on the arena. She was dressed back in her black and gold armor and her spear rested on her shoulder.

"Greetings students," Bianca said as she addressed the crowd. "My name is Bianca Coalhart, as you can see Ms. Goodwitch is not here for the day, she has been given the day off due to a personal matter. Until she returns I am in charge of your combat training," she fumbled out a scroll. After a few seconds of failing to operate the small device she let out an aggravated sigh and shoved the device in her pocket. "Ok! Since I am having technical difficulty, will go based on who I chose." She pointed to Jaune, "Mr. Arc versus!" She began to draw her finger around the group until it came to a stop. "You there! What is your name?" Bianca called out, the woman stepped forward, Jaune let out a gulp.

"My name is Arslan." The leader of team ARBN stepped forward and gave Jaune a look that a predator might give its prey. Both stepped in the arena, Bianca stepped forward. "I'm sure you're both aware of the rules of engagement?" They nodded, "alright then BEGIN!" Bianca stepped out of the arena and the surrounding room went dim. Arslan went into stance and let out a chuckle as she saw the blonde warrior close his eyes and lower his head.

"Sorry Arc, but only the best are allowed to succeed." She said cockily as she began to slowly step forward looking somewhat bored, she had no trouble taking him down in previous fights, the rest of the crowd snickered in the shadows. The snicker quickly died however and Arslan froze where she was as Jaune began to glow, a golden light encompassing him quickly.

"That's true, but that leaves one question still to be decided." Jaune said, Arslan took a step back as she stared into his electric blue irises. "Who really is the greater and who's the lesser?" He unsheathed his sword and quickly it began to hum with the same golden energy. Arslans eyes narrowed as she looked at the blonde warrior, he was different somehow and she didn't like it.

The rest of the crowd had gone silent in awe and terror some letting out frightened gasps. Bianca grinned with pride and team RWBY and JNPR looked at him with curiosity and excitement at what would happen next. Arslan was getting frustrated as she looked for an opening for attack, but was scared about the new power he had seemingly brought out of nowhere. Her rage began to boil out as she growled at him, and began to fain attacks at him to get him to do… _something._

The two squared each other up, Jaune thought about what it was like before, how he use to tremble in terror. Those days were gone, as he looked at Arslan he couldn't help but smile. He was a hunter and now there was no more questioning it, he went into stance. Arslan had enough, the smile he flashed at her was the last straw. The martial arts prodigy ran at him with all her might, bellowing a mighty roar!

The two clashed…

TWISH!

 **FIN**

 ** _For now…_**


End file.
